Naruto's Marvellous ReAdventures
by Tobias.TH
Summary: When Naruto wakes up in Konoha, he knows that something is wrong. Yesterday he helped fight Tobi, today he's sitting the academy exam. Timetravel, no pairings. OOC. Crack-type humour
1. The Wrongness in Konoha

So, here's a piece that I decided to try out. It's been sitting on my computer for a while, and I have a fair number of chapters planned.

Basically, it's a comedy/adventure/parody type of fic with timetravel and all sorts of weird things, I guess. It'll follow canon (for the most part), but it will be written full of chapters that could basically be seen as 'filler'. Many times there will seem to be no plot, but there is one. It's just going to take a long time to appear properly, is all, and the actual plot (or hints to what's really going on) may not become fully clear until much, much later. It will take a slight twist at the end, that people may see coming or may not.

I have already completed eight full chapters, and will be starting the ninth soon. If I can keep up a good chapter writing schedule, this shall be updated once a week.

Let's see how this turns out, then.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto is the full property of Masashi Kishimoto, and Shounen Jump magazine, Japan. This is a non-profit piece of fanwork.

**18/8/12: **Thank you to 'the DragonBard' for pointing out that Tobi and Madara are not the same person. I will keep his identity as Madara (for this fic) until his real name is revealed, so that I can change it.

**8/9/12: **With chapter 600 out, and Tobi confirming that he is who he is, names have now been changed.

* * *

**The Wrongness in Konoha**

From the moment that he woke up, Naruto knew that there was something very wrong. He made his bed for a change and searched through the small fridge for breakfast, all while the strange 'off' feeling of wrongness clouded around him in a thick haze. He pulled out a carton of milk and checked the expiry date, just in case that was what was very wrong. Unfortunately, the milk was good for almost another four days, or so, so that was not the problem. He drank out of the carton and shut the fridge door.

Naruto stared around his small apartment, still thinking hard. His apartment was small, messy, but very homely at the same time. He glanced over at the sink and his mouth opened in slight surprise before smiling wide.

"I know!" he called. "I didn't wash the dishes last night! That's what's wrong!" He paused and touched his throat. His voice had sounded strangely very high-pitched. "Hmm? A cold?"

No, somehow the feeling of wrongness did not fade. Whatever it was, it was not the dishes, nor was it a cold. Naruto placed the now-empty carton on his small wooden table and left to dress. He performed his morning activities vacantly, and he almost flooded his bathroom by filling the sink with too much water and letting it overflow.

He searched for his forehead protector, but could not find heads-nor-tails of the damn thing, so he just shrugged and left without it. It was unlike him to do so, but he was too busy thinking to care. Outside was warm too, very warm, and it brought an unexpected smile to his whiskered face. Then, the smile dropped completely as a stronger feeling of wrong swept over him.

What was it? He looked around frantically as he sped walked through his village. Konoha looked the same as it ever did, if not just a little 'newer' than he last remembered. Buildings were still there, a little less worn than normal, the forests of trees were still alive and growing incredibly strong, and, over in the distance, Naruto could see that the Hokage Monument still existed, though slightly 'fresher' and lacking something, something important that he should not have forgotten, but could not recall. Still, everything looked to be perfectly fine.

But something was still very wrong.

Perhaps it was the way that the sun shone strangely much warmer on an early winter's day, or maybe it was just how the birds, large flocks of them, had changed their tunes to a calmer call and whistle. Was it the way that the people in the village all appeared to be grumpier than normal for no obvious reasons, or was it how Kakashi seemed young, fit and healthy while walking down another street carrying a sweet and bouncy tune in his whistle.

Naruto blinked; he could never recall Kakashi ever being _that_ happy.

Strangely, though, the thought of a super jovial Kakashi did not disturb Naruto as much as it probably should have. No, Naruto still needed to figure out what was off about his wonderful village.

He decided that it would do him no harm to ask someone.

Naruto spied Ichiraku Ramen and approached it immediately. He took a seat at the bench and called out to the old chef behind the counter.

"Hey old chef!"

Teuchi, the old chef, turned around and his wrinkled face lit up with a grin. "Oh, Naruto! Care for a meal? Want the usual?"

Naruto smiled. Talking over a bowl of steaming hot noodles and broth sounded like an excellent idea to him. "Yes please!" he called happily. "Also, I've come to ask you something."

"Hmm? What is it?" Teuchi asked, setting immediately to work on his favourite customer's meal.

"Have you noticed anything that seemed, you know, kinda off about today?"

Teuchi gave a small chuckle. "What? You actually saying 'please' was strange enough on its own."

"Old chef, I'm serious."

"So am I," Teuchi said, chuckling again. "So, what have you been up to, then?"

Naruto frowned at the change of subject, but he just had to pass it off as the old chef knowing nothing. "I've been training quite a lot," he said. "There's been a lot of fighting lately. Even I've put my all in to fight."

"Training's good . . . but fighting, Naruto? What's up there?"

"The Great Ninja War."

"War?" Teuchi stared over, stunned. He then laughed and placed a dragon-print bowl plus a pair of fused wooden chopsticks down in front of Naruto. "You have one heck of an imagination, kiddo."

Naruto frowned and broke the chopsticks. "Time to eat," he said, but did not attack his noodles at all. "I didn't imagine it." It bugged him, he remembered not planning to return to Konoha once the war was over, but, for the life of him, he could not remember his reasons why. He thought again, why _was_ he back in Konoha, anyway?

"So, did your side win the war?" Teuchi asked, obviously just humouring Naruto.

Naruto sighed; he knew that Teuchi did not believe him for some reason. "If I'm still alive, then we obviously did win." He glanced down at his noodles. "Why haven't you heard of it, yet? It was against some crazy old guy named Tobi. I thought that it had become all common knowledge by now."

Suddenly, it hit him. The reason why Naruto was not planning to return back to Konoha was because he could not return.

'_Wait, why does Konoha still exist. . .?'_

"Yo, a bowl of Ginger Pork for me please!"

"Coming right up, sir," Teuchi greeted the newcomer.

Naruto's breath caught in his throat as he stared over to the man beside him. The man looked familiar, very familiar and very sickly; he had the same cough and same dark eye-rings as a certain exam proctor that Naruto could remember from some time ago. Naruto's face paled several shades as he stood up and backed away.

"N-no way! Y-y-you're d-dead!" he stuttered, gaining both the attentions of Hayate and Teuchi. "You're dead!"

Naruto took another step backwards, before turning around to run as fast as he could. He did not plan to stick around and share lunch with a dead man; in fact, he did not even want to be in a village that was no longer standing. His ramen was left forgotten on the counter, broken wooden chopsticks no longer by its side.

"What's up with him?" Hayate asked, mostly unfazed. He had seen many strange things in his lifetime, and most of them he would rather not remember. Not for anyone or for any prize.

"I'm not really sure, but apparently you're dead," Teuchi answered, slightly shocked.

They waited for a moment longer, as if waiting for Naruto to return and laugh at them for falling for an exaggerated fear prank, before shrugging and starting up a casual conversation. The weather was lovely and the economy was good, so there was plenty to talk about to help take their minds off the very imaginative blonde boy.

Naruto stopped running as soon as he reached the base of the Hokage Monument. His face, though still very pale, was slightly flushed on the cheeks, and there was sweat beading on his forehead. It was not because he was tired, oh no he was far from tired, it was from his fear of his discovery.

Oh, how he wished to the gods that he was wrong.

Somehow, Naruto had managed to travel back in time, but how he did and why he did were both completely unknown to him. All that mattered was that it had somehow really happened, most of the people that were dead would now be back alive, and he was back in his twelve-year old body. He was surprised that he had not managed to notice _that_ little detail back when he was getting dressed.

"I really need to get back to my own time," he said, gripping the sides of his head as he stared at his feet. He could not go back through everything again, that would all be pointless, and he had to help everyone defeat Obito back in his time. They were in the very middle of a crucial war, and they needed him.

But what if he could not return? What then? He would have to survive through everything all over again, Sasuke's betrayal, Orochimaru being alive, the Akatsuki still formed and at large, everything. He did not believe that he would be able to do that; he would surely go mad.

All those missions set by the Daimyo's wife. . .

He would definitely go mad.

"Okay, calm down Naruto, let's think clearly," he whispered to himself. "First thing's first, I need to figure out _when_ this is. Let's see, Hayate's alive, so this is before the third part of the chuunin exams. . . But _when_ is it before the exams? I'll check a calendar later." He ticked a finger. "Two: I need to try and remember how it was, exactly, that I wound up here." He ticked another finger. "And, three: I need to figure out how the hell that I'm going to get back to my time." He ticked his third finger and frowned. His hand fell to his side and he allowed a long groan to escape his lips. "So, how did I get here?"

A firm hand clamped down on Naruto's shoulder. "I don't know, how about you tell me."

Naruto let out a startled scream and jumped back. The offender had been Iruka, and the older man did not look very happy at all. Naruto calmed down and stared at Iruka curiously, partially wondering why he had not managed to sense the other approaching him at all. He also was not too sure as to why Iruka did not look very pleased, so he wondered if he, his past self, had done anything recently that could piss off his previous teacher. Cautiously, Naruto glanced up to the Hokage Monument, searching for any signs of graffiti, before sighing thankfully. That was not it. Then, Naruto shrugged as no answer seemed to come to mind.

"What's up, Master Iruka?"

Naruto seemed to have hit a point there, he figured, as he watched Iruka's face grow a shade darker than before. He watched as Iruka's shoulders also started to shake, and he bit down hard on his bottom lip. That reaction was never very good. He glanced back up to the monument again just in case he, for some reason, had yet to see the paint.

"Naruto, do you know where you're supposed to be right now?" Iruka asked, his voice also shaking.

Naruto frowned and folded his arms. _'On the battlefield!'_ was how he had wanted to answer, but he had to choose his words very carefully. "Not here, Master Iruka?"

Iruka twitched again, and Naruto knew that he had made a bad move. "That's right, Naruto, but _where_?"

Naruto shrugged.

"Okay, then, what day is it?"

". . .I was hoping that you would tell me," Naruto let slip out. His eyes widened and he slapped his hands over his mouth. Smooth move, Uzumaki, smooth move. Such smart-arsed comments had only proven to place him in much more trouble in the past, and he thought that he would have learned that by now.

He saw Iruka's eye twitch, and he took a step backwards.

"You're meant to be at the academy, Naruto," Iruka said in a scarily calm voice. "You haven't turned up for a good three days, so I decided to go and check on you, thinking that you may just be unwell, but I find you here. . ."

It finally clicked for Naruto, and his eyebrows rose as though he had been enlightened. "Oh!"

Iruka snapped. "Don't you 'oh' me!"

"It's not that, Master Iruka," Naruto assured him. "I was just trying to figure out what day it was, exactly." He stared upwards thoughtfully. "So _that's_ when I am. Today was when I painted the Hokage Monument."

"You painted the _what_?" Iruka said, a layer of disbelief coating his voice, and stared up at the monument in question.

Naruto shook his head and held his hands up harmlessly. "No no no no no," he said. "I meant to say that today was when I was meant to paint it. . . or, once did paint it. . . uhh, should have. . ." He glanced over at Iruka's unamused face and folded-arms-pose. "You know what, I'll stop myself right there before I dig myself a deeper hole."

Iruka clamped his hands roughly around Naruto's middle and lifted him up to be carried under the arm. "So you should, so you should," he said as he started to walk back in the direction of the academy. "You're late for class, anyway."

Naruto found it odd, but he did not struggle. Oh, he _knew_ the consequences that came with struggling; so, even if he did find it terribly embarrassing and strange with being carried like a piece of luggage at his age, he knew that he would just have to grin and bear it. He looked twelve again and no one else knew any better. It was also highly unlikely that anyone, especially Iruka, would believe him if he told them the truth.

There had to be a way around that, some way to convince them that he really was from the future.

They received many strange stares from the villagers as well as other ninja as they continued back towards the academy, Naruto still being carried. Even the Great Third Hokage was watching them from the tower window while on his short break. The hokage shifted his weight a little and stared over at the Hokage Monument, the pride of the village, all the previous hokage that came and went with time. His face was up there too, nestled comfortably between the second and the fourth.

Normally, staring at the monument filled him with pride and determination, the desire to perform his best as a leader to his village, but the only thing that he could think of today, while looking at it, was how strangely _dull_ the monument seemed.

'_Needs some kind of spiffing up,'_ he thought, before returning to his desk to continue his work.

Naruto was roughly dropped down onto the wooden floor, at the front of the class, and was tied with rope to keep him still. He glanced about at the other students and frowned, wondering how Iruka thought that this would be humiliating on any level other than pathetic, especially for the number one attention seeker in all of Konoha.

Well, Naruto liked to believe that that position belonged to Sasuke. It should not have been so difficult to give a small 'smile' on occasion instead of that stupid smug 'I am better than you' smirk. Even though he often would happily consider Sasuke to be his best friend, younger Sasuke still managed to get on his nerves something terrible. Quickly, he searched the sea of snoopy faces to see if he could find that same 'superior' face. He could also see many young faces that he could remember. There was Ino sitting beside Sakura; the girls were whispering to each other and were either failing to hide it or just did not care. Kiba was more to the left and was rocking back and forth on his chair. In a few minutes, Kiba's chair would slip and he would be on the ground swearing. Shino sat quietly in the corner, not doing much, and Hinata sat next to him, blushing and shifting nervously. As soon as the girl caught Naruto's eyes on her, she squeaked and stared down at her desk, almost the colour of a ripe tomato. Then there was Shikamaru, near passed out and snoring, sitting next to Chouji, who was hiding a packet of crisps under his desk and munching whenever the opportunity arose for him to do so.

Strangely, though, it appeared that Sasuke was absent; Naruto could not see the kid anywhere.

Had Sasuke been absent, on this same day, all of those years ago?

"—Do you understand, Naruto?"

Naruto quickly glanced up to Iruka and eyed the questioning stare that was on his teacher's face. If Naruto could recall correctly, he had managed to ignore the exact same speech before.

"What?" he asked.

Iruka's face darkened. "So, you weren't listening?"

"I was looking for someone," Naruto said, answering truthfully. Perhaps if he was honest, he would not get into as much trouble.

It turned out that he was wrong.

"Well, if you think that staring about amongst your peers would be more beneficial to you than actually listening to your teacher, you, and the rest of the class, may repeat today's lesson, the one which you so very kindly skipped. This way, we'll see just how popular you can really get."

Naruto involuntarily flinched. He was trying to avoid having this happen again. A quick glance back at the rest of the class proved that they were all angry with him as well, which was definitely not what he had been aiming for at all. If he had to re-do everything, he could have at least made himself much more well liked among his peers.

Everything really was repeating over for him, even if he did change the cause a little.

On Iruka's orders, one by one Naruto's classmates formed a line. Naruto tried to sneak in at the end, but he was pulled straight into line near the front by a very angry young boy whose name escaped him. Naruto did not remember everything from back then.

Their task was to use the transformation technique to turn into Iruka.

Naruto hated this task, and he hated how the class were all glaring at him. He wanted to scream that it was not his fault, that he did not know that he had been hurled a number of years back into the past only to encounter a patience lacking Iruka. It was not his fault, but no one would ever believe him.

Oh well, at least Sasuke was not in class to also mock him.

"Naruto, you're up!" Iruka called from the front of the class.

Naruto glanced around him only to notice that what Iruka had said had been the truth. He was now the first in line.

"Wait a minute . . . some of the people that were in front of me are now behind me. . ."

"Today, Naruto."

Naruto groaned and glared at the other students. They had all snuck around to the end.

Naruto clapped his hands together, formed the transformation jutsu sign, and then became Iruka. The class fell silent, and Naruto turned around to give the students, at the back, the bird. Finally pleased with himself, Naruto dispelled the jutsu and marched straight out of the classroom.

He had blown everyone away with his incredible skills that he had spent years honing, he thought. He would never be the dead-last again, and was now a prodigy, admittedly a cheating prodigy. Well, it did not matter to him; he was done with class and was off to figure out how to return to his own time.

Iruka and the class continued to stare at the doorway through which Naruto had exited. Something had seemed well off about what had just happened. So far off, in fact, that Iruka had not even bothered to either stop Naruto or bring him back to the class.

At last the silence was broken.

"Strange, for some reason I was expecting him to turn into a girl. . ." Iruka said, scratching his head lightly.

The rest of the class nodded in agreement.

* * *

Thank you greatly for reading. I hope that you enjoyed the first chapter.


	2. Square One and Hugs

Hello again.

I was talking to a friend, and they suggested that I actually upload the second chapter, before moving onto weekly updates. It seemed like a harmless idea, so that's what I'll be doing.

Also, I feel the need to explain that I apologise for inaccuracies that may occur. I only read the books that I buy (leaving me at book 34), and other things that I know were brought up in discussion among friends that had read further.

It has (recently) come to my attention that Tobi and Madara may not actually be the same person (Though I still don't have confirmation on that), and the majority of what I have written was done well before I found out.

I do apologise, and I wish for you to be patient with me.

See you next week.

* * *

**Square One and Hugs**

Naruto never ended up returning to the classroom. No, he had many far more important things to worry about. Yes, serious problems such as how he could return back to his own time, and, well, why the hell he was unable to use any shadow clones.

It did not make any sense, and it was very frustrating.

He could form the seal, he could summon up the chakra, and he had all the knowledge, but he could not, for the life of him, get the stupid jutsu to work. All that happened, instead of summoning any number of extra Naruto's, was a fizzle, then smoke, and then an explosion which cleared away into nothing more than just a charred orange-clad ninja.

Oh, for the love of God.

Naruto had, worriedly, decided to check all the other jutsu that he knew (which, thankfully, were not many). Each had similar results, with rasengan being the most amusing. With rasengan's outcome, Naruto discovered that he had quite the talent for setting himself on fire.

Nothing else, just himself.

Every. Single. Time.

Water walking almost drowned him (of course, he could have avoided that by not practically diving straight into the deepest part of the river), and tree climbing left him so bruised that he looked as though he had tried to take on the entire Yakuza and lost.

Naruto was partially surprised that he was still alive by the time that dusk rolled around.

He certainly did not look as though he was meant to be living, or at least conscious.

"It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair," he chanted to himself over and over.

Naruto had planned that, if he would be unable to return to his own time, he would sweep through the past as the most powerful genin that Konoha would have ever known. He would outclass Sasuke in everything, become the pride of the village, and then would be able to take on the entire Akatsuki, all without ever breaking a sweat. He would go down in history, become a hero, and people would look up to him. Sasuke would beg to become HIS pupil and would not run off to train under Orochimaru.

All would be absolutely perfect.

Naruto stopped walking, and sighed. "Well, I could, at least, try and get Sasuke to like everyone better. . ."

He knew it would be a difficult task, but it could not be too impossible.

It might just be impossible.

Naruto sighed again.

"I don't even know what would be the correct approach to take on that one. . ."

After all, how WOULD someone go about trying to cheer a person like Sasuke up?

He wanted to see Sasuke again, especially the twelve-year old Sasuke that had not already lost his marbles. He imagined that Sasuke (at that point) would have been very malleable. With the correct influences, Sasuke's personality could have probably changed quite a bit.

At least, that was what Naruto was hoping.

What would the correct influences be? Spend more time joking around him? No, Sasuke would just ignore him or even insult him even more than he used to. What about being civil and offering to shout a few meals occasionally? No, Naruto's poor wallet would suffer, and he just did not know how to behave civilly (up to Sasuke's standards, at least; by Inuzuka clan standards, he was a complete gentleman).

While tossing ideas over inside his head, Naruto almost limped into a pole. It was dark out, possibly already about nine o' clock, and he had been too busy trying to figure out why his abilities sucked to actually have dinner or even keep track of time and location.

On second thoughts, where the heck was he?

Naruto stared around himself, not recognising the section of Konoha very well. It was clean, kept, and very quiet, so it was an area to which he had probably never visited before. The rich part of the village, perhaps? Whatever it was, it was all housing area. There were no parks, but each garden looked grand enough to be one, and there was absolutely no litter. The place was so clean that Naruto would not have been surprised if he was told that the neighbourhood also received a weekly road waxing.

Not a can, garden weed, or even feather was anywhere to be seen.

Instantly, Naruto stared at the ground and pulled a face, all in the hopes to see his own reflection. Sadly, the asphalt did not work that way.

Naruto boredly stared up at one of the houses. He could have sworn that he had visited all parts of Konoha before, but he did not recognise where he was even a little bit. All the houses looked exactly the same, in shape and colouration, and that was something that he had never seen before.

What worried him most of all, though, was just how lonely the place seemed.

There were no lights on anywhere, and even the streetlights seemed to not work. Briefly, Naruto wondered if his travel back in time could have already changed the events in the past. Or perhaps the place was still being built?

Whatever it was, Naruto did not like it, and all cheer that he previously may have had was now gone.

There was only silence, no insects, and just an overwhelming feeling of loneliness.

Suddenly, there was a noise, the rustling of plastic and footsteps, which made Naruto jump. He placed his hand over his chest and sighed thankfully. He was not afraid, he was actually very happy. The noise meant that there was actually another person around.

The loneliness slowly dissipated into nothing, and cheer took back over.

Naruto decided to head towards the sound of life, desperately wanting company, and he decided that rooftop travel would be the fastest and easiest route. Sure enough, though, he was right. From the roof he could see some light a short distance off. Grinning, Naruto ran towards the sign of people, and halted as soon as he could see the person.

It was none other than Sasuke Uchiha.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as 'instinct' overrode any common sense and planning that he may have prepared.

Naruto bolted over to just above the other boy and dove off the roof.

Sasuke had heard the shout of his name, and had looked up just in time to see Naruto soaring down towards him. Time seemed to slow, and Sasuke found that he was frozen to the spot, just like a frightened animal. The only things that he was capable of moving were his eyes, that could no longer grow any wider, and the only noise that he was able to emit was a small and meek "eh?".

Then, Naruto crash landed on top of Sasuke and pulled him into a tight hug.

Sasuke could never run away from the village now.

"Damn you, you idiot!" Naruto said, squeezing harder. Sasuke remained silent. "Do you have any idea how many years I've been chasing after you? And only to find you HERE?"

". . .What?" Sasuke finally managed to say. It came out in a tiny squeak.

Realisation suddenly hit Naruto, and he dropped Sasuke instantly. Sasuke had no balance, so he fell straight onto the ground. Naruto remembered how this Sasuke was not 'his' Sasuke, but was, instead, a twelve-year old Sasuke.

A twelve-year old Sasuke that was still studying in the academy, completely innocent to the life of a ninja.

Naruto's face grew quite red from embarrassment, just by thinking about how what he said may have sounded like to a person that had no idea what happened in the future.

Oh God.

"No no nononono!" Naruto held his arms out in front of him, and he shook his head vigorously. "No, I DON'T love you! That wasn't what I meant at all!"

Sasuke stayed quiet and pale. He also stayed sitting on the ground.

"I know that I hugged you, and that I said some things that you don't understand, and that may have seemed a little . . . uhh, well, hugs are very important! Whenever you're feeling lonely, depressed, confused, or even just plain weak, then you should hug someone!" Naruto did not even know what he was saying anymore. "It has been proven that hugging— hugging ANYTHING— can relieve you of all of those feelings! They clear your mind, calm you down, and make you healthier! Hugs are the secret behind all great and powerful ninja! Uhhh. . . I'M FROM THE FUTURE!" Naruto screamed, and then took off running.

He was terribly embarrassed and refused to glance back for anything. He did not stop running until he had returned to his small apartment. Once there, he panted and held one hand over his heart, before proceeding to bang his head on the wall.

"Stupid stupid stupid!" he muttered, each word in time with a bang.

He may had just found a way to leave himself embarrassed forever, able to be teased without a moment's notice, and had possibly just scarred Sasuke for the rest of his days.

On the bright side, though, he figured out that the mysteriously clean neighbourhood was actually just the Uchiha Compound.

1

The next day was the examination day, the day that academy attendees were able to show everything that they had previously learned and then possibly become ninja. It was a day of celebrations, nervousness, and excitement. A day that everyone, parents and children alike, all looked forward to.

How Naruto hated this day.

He would fail the exam, get bribed by the teacher Mizuki, and then almost die and almost kill Iruka.

Oh, what a wonderful day it would be.

Then there was also the fact that the entire class was going to be in school that day, which meant that Naruto would inevitably see Sasuke again.

Yes, let the mockery commence.

Naruto stared over to his alarm clock, noting that it was already ten minutes past when academy students normally got up. He did not care, though; he was not going to go to school and take that exam. He was going to stay at home, think over just how stupid he was the previous night, bash his head into the wall a few more times, and then contemplate further on how he would return to his own time.

Once back in his own time, he would pray that what he had done had not affected the future in some way.

Oh lord, he prayed that that would not be the case.

Anything but that.

Naruto pulled the covers over his head, and rolled face-down onto the pillow. There were no words, none that he could think of, that could ever possibly describe just how much that he currently hated himself.

Very slowly, the time ticked by, and Naruto remained hidden under his blanket, trying to suffocate himself on his pillow.

He just wanted to wake up and discover that he had simply been bonked on the head, instead of actually time travelling and making a fool of himself in the past.

Yes, and then he would be able to continue with his life as normal.

There were three knocks on Naruto's front door, to which Naruto responded with a "go away". The visitor ignored Naruto's wishes, though, and entered the house anyway.

"You know," Iruka started, "you would be able to enforce the 'go away, no visitors' plea better if you actually learn to lock your door."

Naruto turned his head to glare at his teacher. He was partially surprised that he had not been yelled at yet when he was quite obviously planning to truant.

Well, this WAS Iruka, so the yelling would most likely come soon.

"Your exam is on today, you really should come to class," Iruka continued. "You aren't sick, are you?"

Naruto pressed his face back down onto the pillow. "I don't wanna become a ninja anymore. . ." he grumbled.

Iruka groaned. "Not you too. . ." he said, suddenly grabbing Naruto's attention. "First Sasuke starts acting strange, and now you don't want to become a ninja. . . "

"What's wrong with Sasuke?"

"I really don't know," Iruka answered truthfully. "He just seems to be in his own little world, for a change. I had to call his name three times before he would answer me; he seems to be really troubled by something, but I've never seen him like this before."

Naruto held back a groan. He knew exactly what was wrong with Sasuke, and he was definitely not looking forward to seeing the boy again. He could not give Iruka an honest answer either. He was not sure how well Iruka would take "yeah, I broke into his home last night, hugged him, shouted a stupid excuse for hugging him, announced that I was from the future, and then I took off like the Daimyo's wife's cat".

No, it would probably be best to not bring it up at all.

Iruka grabbed hold of Naruto's left arm and started to pull, while Naruto held onto the window sill.

"Come on, Naruto, you need to get up and do your exam!"

"No, I'll fail it!"

"Not if you studied!"

"I didn't study!"

2

"Told 'ya that I would fail," Naruto said, glaring down at the 'dead' clone beside him.

Iruka stared at it, also quite unimpressed. "You didn't study. . ." he said.

"I told you that I didn't!" Naruto yelled.

"Yes, but I didn't think that you were being honest!" Iruka shouted back. The older man took a deep breath, to calm himself down, and stared back at the lifeless clone. "I'm sorry to say, Naruto, that you have failed the exam."

The clone disappeared in a pathetic puff of smoke. Naruto glared at where it had been, unable to shake off the sneaking suspicion that it was actually a worse clone than the one that he had summoned all those years ago. He was not too sure why that would be true, but he was pretty sure that someone was messing with him.

Most likely his mind was the one behind it, but he grew to dislike that a long time ago.

"Iruka, why don't we just give the boy another chance?" Mizuki asked. Naruto glanced at the teacher with a little surprise. He had forgotten that Mizuki had always acted kindly towards him, before trying to kill him. "He seems quite tired, so perhaps that's why he's not up to scratch."

Iruka snorted. "When I fail a student, I fail them for a decent reason. Naruto is an idiot, he skips classes and even refused to study for this exam, or so it seems. I do strongly believe that is warranting of failure."

"But he seems unwell, Iruka. Perhaps he should be allowed to try again once he is feeling better?"

"Sasuke didn't seem one-hundred percent, and yet he managed to pass; I see no reason as to why Naruto should be the only one to receive special privileges."

Mizuki tried to hide a chuckle. "Yes, Sasuke and that door was . . . interesting, to say the least."

Naruto gulped. What had he done? What was Sasuke doing? How was a door involved?

Iruka tried to sigh in annoyance, but it was quite obvious that he was really trying to stifle a laugh. "You forgot Ibiki."

Okay, WHAT?

Mizuki suddenly burst out into short bouts of laughter. "Oh God, oh God! We shall never let Ibiki live that one down!" Mizuki quietened into a snicker and glanced at Naruto. "Oh, you're still here?" he asked, hissing laughter begging to erupt again. "Sorry that I couldn't help, Naruto."

"Naruto, why don't you wander off," Iruka suggested, now failing completely to hide the fact that he was laughing. "We are discussing private teacher matters, here."

Naruto did only what he was currently capable of; he slowly nodded his head and dawdled out of the classroom. He felt as though something within him had broken, leaving him purely as a dumbstruck zombie. He had the feeling that he done something wrong, something terribly wrong, that had caused the natural flow of everything to halter and twist.

Regardless of whatever had happened to Sasuke, he knew that it was his fault and that his punishment (most likely death) was going to come for him very soon.

"How'd it go, Naruto?" a nice teacher asked, sounding genuinely interested.

"Augh ar auuugggghh," was all that Naruto could manage, and he walked passed her without glancing back.

Meanwhile, Ibiki stormed into the examination room to tell the two chuunin to shut up, but he only managed to make the laughter carry on louder and harder, all up until the point of shedding tears.

Ibiki hated them all, and especially that Uchiha brat.

3

Naruto eventually calmed down from his stunned zombie phase, and had decided to go for a walk. He thought that it might be best for him to not think any further on what was currently wrong with Sasuke, and that he should return to coming up with a solution to his time problem.

That, and he wanted to make life a little bit more difficult for Mizuki, so thinking through a good plan was his current top priority.

Suddenly, Naruto grinned.

Oh, he had just received the best idea ever.

First thing was first, though: find Mizuki.

4

Finding Mizuki turned out to not be as difficult as Naruto had initially thought it would be. At first, Naruto had taken straight to searching around the academy, around the market place, and then around all of the backstreets and main roads. It was only after he glanced up that he noticed Mizuki waving down at him from a roof.

Honestly.

That particular roof just happened to be one of Naruto's favourite 'lazy' spots, so it should have been the first area he checked. It seemed pretty obvious that Mizuki would wait for him in a place that he was well known to frequent.

"Sorry about today, Naruto," Mizuki apologised, smiling softly. "I really tried my best for you."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, ignoring the apology. "I just want to know what was wrong with Sasuke. You guys mentioned a door and Ibiki before—"

Mizuki sniggered.

"—you guys started laughing and sent me out."

"That was a private discussion, Naruto," Mizuki lied, trying to hide some laughter. "It wouldn't be fair to talk about another student, to you, behind their back; that could be seen as bullying, Naruto."

Ibiki sneezed.

Naruto sighed. "Okay," he said dully.

Mizuki smiled again. "Iruka doesn't hate you, you know. He just wants you to pass with your own power. He really considers you to be—"

"An idiot?"

"—a good student," he finished, and frowned. "Well, if you're really interested in passing, I can tell you a very big secret! This should help you to pass easily. All you need to do is. . ."

"Is steal a secret scroll?" Naruto asked, feigning innocence.

Mizuki opened and closed his mouth like a fish. "Ah, umm, huh? How did you know?"

Naruto grinned. This was where the fun would start.

"I'm from the future, Master Mizuki."

Well, he was not lying.

"The future?"

"Yes, and I can tell you right now that your idea is a very bad one."

Mizuki frowned. He did not like where the conversation was heading. Lying or not, Naruto's guess was surprisingly accurate.

"How so?" he asked.

"You're trying to get me to steal a scroll and then get in trouble with the village, aren't you? You're going to try and kill me tonight. Well, what will really happen is that YOU will be tried for disobeying the law and for the attempted murder of two shinobi. You will be executed."

"Huh?"

"However, Master Mizuki, I'm feeling rather generous today. I'll make you a deal: I'll steal the scroll, take all of the blame, and promise to not sell you out, but only IF you pay me."

The confused stare left Mizuki's face, and the man chuckled. "Pay you what?"

"10,000 Ryo."

Mizuki burst into laughter. "No one would ever believe a child over a trusted chuunin; I might as well just kill you now."

"And spend the rest of your life in trouble?" Naruto asked, shaking his head. "I'm offering you a way to get by with your reputation completely intact, and I'll still steal the scroll."

Naruto was, of course, planning to pin the blame off onto a different ninja. The particular man that he had in mind would be executed for treason in a few years anyway. He was a spy for another village, so Naruto thought that it would be best to get him in trouble now before any real harm came on by his hands. Naruto was not too sure on how well his plan would work, but it was worth a shot.

Naruto would also still become a ninja after, but Mizuki did not need to know those details straight away.

In fact, Mizuki needed to know none of what Naruto was planning.

Mizuki glanced around. "2000 Ryo," he whispered.

Naruto smirked. Poor Mizuki thought that he would be getting the better half of the deal.

"15,000 Ryo."

Mizuki's face grew red. "What? You brat, that's not how haggling works! 4000 Ryo, that's it."

Naruto sighed and stared at the sky. "Is that all that your life is worth to you?" he asked. "Maybe I should just go and tell the old man Hokage that my good ol' teacher Mizuki instructed me to perform a rather illegal act. . ."

"No, I'll pay," Mizuki said, sighing in defeat.

Naruto smirked. He did not think that everything would work out so well. It was almost as though he was controlling a dream.

"20,000 Ryo?"

"20,000 Ryo," Mizuki repeated, and the man took out his wallet.

Best. Death-Day. Ever.

* * *

That was chapter two, and it was surprisingly fun to write.

Thank you for reading this piece of fanwork, and I hope that you enjoyed it.

Chapter three will be up next week.


	3. Becoming Ninja: Not That Hard

It's been about a week, so here's the new chapter.

I was worried about posting because my computer decided that, out of the blue, that it would stop working. No-one knows what's wrong with it just yet, but it should all be fixed soon (I hope).

When my computer went, I was especially worried because all of this fic (including all the chapters that I wrote ahead) was on my computer. Luckily, I had decided to save the fic onto a thumbdrive, at some point, last week. I thought that I removed it from the thumbdrive (like I had planned to do), but I had not done so.

Laziness has saved the day, I guess.

Anyway, thank you for being patient with me, and onto the next chapter.

* * *

** Becoming Ninja: Not That Hard**

Stealing the scroll a second time was much harder than Naruto could remember it being. Perhaps it was just his nerves getting the better of him (which it should not have been, because he would never be afraid of something so simple), or perhaps it was the knowledge of how well guarded the scroll library really was. When he was younger, he had no idea of it, and next to none over the consequences of being caught.

But this was his second run, another play-through, in which he was older and wiser.

Naruto could not help but to snort at himself. He was thinking and feeling like an old man.

Speaking of old men, where was the Hokage? Naruto stared around his surroundings for the old man, but could not catch a glimpse of him at all. Naruto blinked, confused, before continuing to escape, his guard up even more so than before.

Well, that was another thing that was different to how he could remember it originally being.

Ah, whatever, that shadow clone jutsu was not going to re-learn itself.

The moment that Naruto made his way back to the small forest (just like last time, which he had excitedly thought) he set to reading over the shadow clone jutsu. After a very quick reread and a rushed attempt almost resulted in blowing himself up, Naruto decided to actually take his time.

'_Just like last time,'_ he thought, wearily.

He briefly wondered whether or not relearning the technique really would take just as long as the first time around, and that, if it did not, would he be able to sneak a peek at the second jutsu on the scroll.

'_Screw it, we'll find out!'_

This time, Naruto managed to take out a tree with the explosion.

1

Mizuki ran around, checking into the homes of all of the more important ninja— and Iruka— just to make sure that they all knew that Naruto, the demon child, had broken into the Great Shinobi Library and had stolen a special scroll (containing Konoha's most secret, powerful, and dangerous techniques) out of the restricted area.

He had not been happy about paying Naruto, but this was still an opportunity to get rid of the boy.

Of course, Mizuki's brilliant plan did not come without its own gaping drawbacks.

He really needed to come up with a decent reason as for how he knew that Naruto had stolen the scroll.

A better idea than "I heard him say that he was going to do it, and I had chosen to wait until now to tell everyone, as well as not try to put a stop to a child that has no ninja abilities when it first became evident that he had committed the crime, despite being overwhelmingly more powerful".

Mizuki hated being unimaginative.

2

Naruto lay on his back, staring up at the sky and panting out of exhaustion. His clothes were a little worse for wear (he did not even have a jacket anymore), and the forest was missing a few trees, a rare and endangered orchid, two rabbits, one bandit, and a number of other really 'unimportant' things, but he finally had the shadow clone jutsu back under his belt.

Relearning the shadow clone jutsu had taught him the valuable lesson of taking his time and using plenty of patience instead of rushing straight into a problem head-first, unprepared, and overly-confident.

Naruto would most likely forget that life lesson within a few hours, if he had not already.

He turned his head just a little to stare at the scroll. He was already exhausted, and yet he had not even had the chance to try out the second jutsu.

After all, he had never heard of a jutsu called "dystopia jutsu" that apparently caused a mental breakdown on the victim. Heck, he really wanted to try it out, the results might be funny.

Naruto felt the tip of a ninja sandal touch the top of his head, and he sighed, not even bothering to take a glance at who was standing over him. It was probably Iruka, anyway, or Mizuki. Iruka would be angry and wanting an explanation pronto, while Mizuki would most probably try and fail to kill him again. Either way, it was no big threat, and not something to get worried over.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, shutting his eyes. He was very tired.

"I want to talk to you," the person replied.

Naruto's eyes flung open, and he leaped away from the spot, as though the ground below him had turned into lava. He knew that voice, and it certainly was not Iruka or Mizuki.

"Obito!" Naruto hissed, forming a basic battle stance.

Obito just stood there, not bothering to change his stature to anything but slouchy. He was back in his 'Tobi' guise, with the orange mask, oversized black armour with a ridiculously long scarf, and very messy hair. His voice had not changed back, though, so it seemed that he was not going to act the part.

Naruto had a lump in his throat, and a knot in his stomach. He was angry and very, very scared.

Obito, though, just placed his hands on his hips and shook his head.

"You shouldn't even bother; you're back to your square one strength, now."

Naruto did not let his guard down. "How do you know?"

"You know how you were thrown back in time by my jutsu? Well, the truth was that my jutsu was meant to kill you, but something went wrong. You ended up being thrown back into the past, and I was dragged along too," Obito explained. "I don't want to fight you just yet; instead, I think that we should try and work together to get back to our own time. Granted, though, I don't want to work with such a weakling like you, but I don't exactly have a choice, anyway. You're the only one that will believe me on the time-travel (being a victim of it, yourself), and we both have to leave here together. Once we're back home I'll slaughter you without mercy."

Naruto charged at Obito, but the man just sidestepped out of the way, barely using any effort. Obito also blocked a number of Naruto's punches and kicks, before throwing the boy back to where he was previously.

"Why the hell should I trust you?" Naruto asked, spitting on the ground. He stood back up and dusted himself off.

"Because we both want o get back to our own time," Obito reasoned, sounding bored. "Now, if it was just you who was to return, then I would have the upper hand in the future, and if it was just me to return, then it would be you who would have the upper hand. Both of us would have problems with those outcomes, even if one is better for both of us. Now, if neither of us were to return, then this would just be a pointless repeat of about five years. However, if both of us were to return, then we could finish our fight, neither with an advantage of sorts, and we'd both be happy. . ." Obito paused for a second, before adding on, "except you, who will end up losing, anyway."

Naruto charged at the man again, trying to attack once more. Obito just blocked and avoided Naruto without any problems. That only proved to anger Naruto more.

Iruka finally arrived on the scene, but decided to stay hidden for a moment. He did not recognise the strange masked man that Naruto was attempting to attack. He decided to wait it out, for the time being, so that he could hopefully gather some information. Besides, Iruka would jump in to help out as soon as Naruto needed the help.

"Your logic does not make sense from your own point of standing," Naruto growled, forming a hand sign in preparation. "You could actually always send me back, but stay here yourself for the advantage, or you could even kill me now and be done with it!" Naruto summoned up about one-thousand clones, but did not even bother to question how he had managed to with his chakra so depleted. "What the HELL are you planning?!"

"Well, I could explain tha—" Obito began, before giving a very Tobi-esque yelp as the thousand Naruto's all dived for him at once. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, HEY!" he shouted.

"We should do that!" one Naruto yelled.

"You mean the—"

"Of course he means that, stupid!"

"Honestly, what were you born yesterday?"

"Today, actually."

"Just shut-up and grab the bastard!"

"GET HIM!"

The Narutos all stopped shouting at each other to give a vicious war cry, before swarming Obito. A number of them were dispelled within seconds, but Obito soon found himself held in place and restricted from doing anything.

Of course, Obito was several times stronger than Naruto, but he had decided to act a little more incompetent. He figured that he might as well humour the kid at least once.

"All right troops! The prisoner is secure?" the original (at least Obito supposed that it was the original, shadow clones always made it difficult to tell) Naruto yelled.

"He is!" the other Narutos called back.

Obito was held in place (more like buried beneath a sea of Naruto clones), and was very curious as to what was going to happen.

Mizuki arrived, with plans to still take out Naruto, only to see the huge mountain of orange. He approached from behind, very curious to see what the young boy was doing. He did not think to question the fact that there were clearly about seven-hundred Narutos in front of him.

Naruto (the real one) grinned. "Let's show this man what happens when we try to use a jutsu much too advanced for us! Everybody, rasengan!"

The explosion was fantastic. Iruka (who had arrived merely a few seconds before) was blown back a short distance, but was otherwise relatively unharmed; Obito escaped with no difficulty, but with his eyes were opened to their widest point; and Mizuki (the man with no luck) was caught up in the blast and was thrown back into the village.

The Third Hokage choked on his pipe; he had never seen what appeared to be a pillar of fire before.

The one remaining Naruto stopped, dropped, and rolled.

But it was all worth it.

When the fire was out, which always happened relatively quickly, Naruto lay on his back laughing. Big, loud laughs. What he had done was incredibly stupid, and he knew it, but incredibly funny. Tears came to his eyes, and his face was pulled into the widest smile that it could form.

"Naruto," Iruka said, walking towards the laughing boy.

Naruto sat up and stared over to his teacher quizzically. He had thought that doing things differently would stop Iruka from turning up, but he was apparently wrong. Naruto wondered if Mizuki was around as well.

"Yes, Master Iruka?" Naruto said, deciding that the polite approach would possibly be best. He had no idea as to what could be in store for him this time around.

Iruka stared over to the ash remains of the scroll, and Naruto followed his gaze.

'_Shit!'_ Naruto thought. _'I am so dead for this!'_

"I. . . I saw everything," the man said.

Naruto laughed sheepishly. "Heh, heh, you did?"

Iruka remained very serious. "Yes, and I understand perfectly."

'_What the hell does he understand?'_ Naruto thought. "Y-you do?"

"Yes, and I am very proud of you."

". . .What." It was a flat-what.

"Well, you see," Iruka began. "I knew that you would never actually steal the scroll on purpose. You were tricked, Naruto, tricked by that strange masked man."

"Umm. . ."

"Yes, and then when you confronted each other, you discovered that you had been tricked into performing an illegal activity by a man that wanted to harm Konoha. Then you used a shadow clone jutsu— which I really should be reprimanding you for— to fight and scare off the evil masked ninja. Of course, you realised that destroying the scroll too may have been your only option, so the man could never get his hands on it again.

"Naruto, I'm so proud of you. Even though you should have never glanced at the scroll, I can't find it within my heart to punish you.

"Congratulations on becoming a genin, Naruto."

. . .

". . .Hah?"

Iruka smiled warmly, before turning around to walk away from Naruto. Naruto, though, was still a little confused as to how his teacher could have arrived at such a strange conclusion. He figured that Iruka had obviously been watching what had taken place (at least for a short while), but was completely unable to see Naruto as anything but a naïve and harmless young boy.

Though Naruto supposed that he should probably feel slightly insulted, he was actually quite relieved that he did not get into a mountain of trouble.

Suddenly, Naruto frowned.

"Wait, I thought that there were meant to be no special privileges for anyone. . ."

3

Naruto ended up arriving very early, to get his picture taken, the next day. This time, he had opted to not paint his face, but to go about the licence photo normally. Everything went well, he was not reprimanded by the Hokage, and it was suggested for him to meet both Iruka and Mizuki in hospital (though why Mizuki was in hospital was a complete wonder to him).

All in all, the morning was very uneventful, and Naruto did not even meet Konohamaru.

He wondered why he had not met Konohamaru. Of course, he did not feel that he should have been worried, but it was still odd not to have a small and energetic brat following him around. It was a shame, because he did end up becoming good friends with that kid.

Naruto also had other things to do, like find Sasuke.

Instead, he found Sakura.

"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto called, raising an arm in casual greeting.

The pink-haired girl glanced over to him and frowned. "Hello, Naruto," she said.

"How are you today?"

"Busy," she replied curtly.

Naruto sighed. It appeared that Sakura did not want to talk to him. "Okay, well, could you help me for a second?"

Sakura also sighed. "Shoot away."

"Cool, have you seen either Sasuke or Konohamaru around anywhere?"

Sakura shook her head. "No," she said. "Also I don't know who Konohamaru is."

Naruto nodded. "Okay," he said. "Well, have you noticed anything to be, you know, kinda _off_ about Sasuke at all, lately?"

Sakura frowned. "He's been a lot quieter than normal—"

"How can you tell?"

"— and he seems really angry over something . . . I mean . . . that door . . . the door didn't do anything, and yet. . ."

Naruto frowned. "Sakura, what happened to the door?" He was curious as this was not the first time that he had heard of it.

Sakura stared at Naruto for a moment, before her eyebrows furrowed and she seemed to grow angry.

"Oaky, Naruto, what did you do?"

Naruto blinked. He should have been expecting that turn, but it had still managed to catch him off guard. "Why is it always my fault?" he asked.

"What did you do to Sasuke?"

"I didn't do anything."

Sakura's frown increased. "You're lying, Idiot. You suck at lying."

Naruto shook his head. He would rather not tell Sakura the truth because he would rather keep his body intact. This was the past, back when Naruto did not have to do very much to annoy the pink-haired girl to the point of violence.

He suddenly found himself wishing for the Sakura of his time back. He preferred her, even if she was monstrously strong and could beat him within an inch of his life.

Naruto was brought back out of his thoughts by a punch to his stomach. He barely managed to catch Sakura's fist on her next attack, only to be flipped over onto his back. Then he had Sakura's foot on his chest, and the girl grinned down at him, not kindly.

"You'll tell me what you did," she threatened, and pulled out a live kunai.

Naruto paled several shades lighter, and tried to swallow the lump growing in his throat. They were not supposed to be carrying live kunai yet, and he could never remember Sakura ever being this bad before.

The girl really was not suggesting that she would maim him, was she?

"I'll confess, I'll confess," Naruto said, sweating. "I broke into Sasuke's home the other night. . ."

"You what?"

". . . And I tackled him. . ."

". . .You. . . _tackled_ him?"

Naruto gulped. ". . . From the roof. . ."

"WHAT?!"

". . . And then I hugged him," Naruto finished.

Sakura sent Naruto an incredulous stare, and removed her foot from his stomach. She also re-pocketed the kunai, proving that it had not actually been a live one. Naruto frowned; he had been worried about being maimed by a toy.

"You. . . _hugged_ him?" she asked, as though she had not heard correctly.

"Yes," Naruto replied, returning to his feet.

"You hugged him . . . after jumping off the roof of his home and _tackling_ him?"

"Yep, that's true."

Sakura stared at Naruto as though he was crazy. "Why . . . why would you _do_ that?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "I kinda mistook him for someone else," he said.

Sakura frowned again and placed her hands on her hips. She tapped her foot on the ground, but not out of impatience or annoyance.

"I have no idea how you managed that," she confessed. "I've yet to see anyone that even looks remotely like Sasuke in this village."

"Heh heh, it's a long story. . ."

"I have time."

Naruto shook his head, but did not remove the smile from his face. It felt good to talk to Sakura again, even if she was just 'interrogating' him.

"Nah, no point. You wouldn't believe me anyway," he said.

Sakura gave a defeated sigh. "Naruto," she began. "After seeing Sasuke and that, uhh, door, I believe that I can safely say that I'll probably believe anything right now, within reason of course."

Naruto glanced up at the sky, deciding to think it over for a moment. It would be much easier if he had someone (Obito not included) to talk to about his current time predicament. Others may have decent ideas to help, or could just be worthwhile to complain to. It was stifling having a secret. On the downside, though, he could just be laughed at and (effectively) manage to ostracise himself by being 'crazy'.

Heaven forbid if he went off his rocker and suddenly developed some master plan concerning the freaking moon.

Well, it was worth a shot.

Naruto sucked in a deep breath. "I mistook Sasuke for himself, well an older version of himself, who went missing a long time ago. Now, before I continue, I need to let you know that I'm actually from the future. As weird as it sounds, it's very true. In the future, I'm looking for Sasuke, and it was that state of mind that took me over again when I spotted younger Sasuke. My actions were very justified, I believe. . . Sakura, why are you laughing at me?"

The pink-haired girl was, indeed, laughing at Naruto. Her arms were crossed over her stomach, and her face was red. Naruto frowned. He did not find his very truthful statement to be very funny at all.

"From the future?" she asked. "Pfft! Naruto, I knew that you were weird, but . . . but hahahaha!"

Naruto frowned, and took in another deep breath. Well, if she was not going to believe him. . .

"You, Sasuke, and I all end up on the same ninja team. Our teacher will be a lazy man called Kakashi Hatake. He's the copy-cat ninja, and an ex-ANBU, and ALWAYS late. Your friend Ino will be placed on a team with Shikamaru and Chouji, recreating the Ino-Shika-Chou group that their parents once held. Their teacher will be Asuma Sarutobi, a man with the affinity of wind. Also, further into the future, we shall meet a kid named Rock Lee. He shall have a crush on you. Now, if you would please excuse me, I have an emo and a brat to find," Naruto said, before starting to walk away.

Sakura stared over, shocked. She knew that there were a few things that were definitely off. Naruto should not have any ideas of teams, just yet (though, he could have made an educated guess, it still seemed unlikely and out of character), and he certainly should not be able to understand let alone know what elemental affinities were.

To test this a little further, she called out to Naruto. "Wait! Naruto aren't you going to ask me out on a date, or something?"

Naruto stopped walking, and smiled back at her. "Though I'd love to, I do understand that you're certainly not interested in me at this point in time in your life. For the moment, though, I'd love to become good friends with you." He waved. "I'll talk to you later, Sakura, I just spotted Konohamaru."

Sakura stared over, dumbly, unable to form any words. Naruto really was acting very strange at the moment, almost as strange as Sasuke.

Sakura decided to head straight to the library to look up a book on time-travel.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto shouted, running over towards the young boy. "Konohamaru, Konohamaru, Konohamaru!"

The young boy glanced over to see Naruto running at him. At first, it had been surprise over someone using his real name, but it morphed into annoyance when he saw that it was someone that he did not know continuously calling to him.

"Konohamaru," Naruto said, standing in front of the young boy. "Konohamaru, guess what, I'm a ninja!"

Konohamaru tilted his head a little. "Point?"

Naruto grinned. "Aren't I cool? Don'tcha sort of want me for a big brother figure, or something?"

Konohamaru rolled his eyes. "I'm not interested in you," he said.

Naruto sighed. He guessed that he would not end up becoming Konohamaru's 'boss' like he was back in his time. He wondered briefly over what he had done wrong. Things were happening different to his original run, and he admitted that scared him just a little. It could also become fun, though, but what changes would really affect his time?

Naruto glanced at Konohamaru. The young boy seemed to be fully engrossed by the public bathroom stall just in front of him. The young boy seemed to be more interested in watching the occupied stall than actually talking to anyone. He could have been waiting to use it, but there were plenty of other public toilets around Konoha.

"Hey, Konohamaru, what are you doing, anyway?" Naruto asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Konohamaru grinned at Naruto. "I'm waiting for my Boss to come out; he's been there for a long time, so I hope that he's alright."

Naruto shrugged, and Konohamaru resumed watching the door.

Deeming it boring (and disappointing that Konohamaru had a new 'boss'), Naruto decided that he would just focus on finding Sasuke. He needed to apologise to the boy, and then figure out what the heck actually happened with the damn door. Naruto contemplated breaking into Sasuke's home (again) to search for the boy there, but quickly decided that he would not like to be arrested for trespassing, as well as breaking and entering.

Hopefully Sasuke was somewhere back around the training academy.

After Naruto was well gone, Konohamaru knocked on the cubical door. "Hey, Boss, you okay? Should I go get a doctor for you?"

Sasuke stared at the door, keeping as quiet as possible. He had searched the entire place for an escape, but could not find one.

'_Damn it!'_ he thought, biting his lower lip. _'How long can that damn brat wait out there? Why couldn't he be off bothering Naruto, or something. . .'_

* * *

That was chapter three; thank you for taking time out of your day to read it.

Hopefully you enjoyed it.

See you next week.


	4. Convincing the NonBelievers

It's been a week, so the new chapter has been uploaded.

I have created a small information profile for this fic. You can find it on my profile. It will be used to keep track of any other updates (on this story) that may occur.

Also, a big thank you to 'the DragonBard' for pointing out that Tobi and Madara are not the same person. I will keep his identity as Madara (for this fic) until his real name is revealed, so that I can change it.

Please be patient with me, and thank you to everyone that has read this far.

* * *

** Convincing the Non-Believers**

In the end, Naruto never ended up finding Sasuke. He had to head on home to prepare for the next day, when they were going to be sorted into ninja teams, and even passed by Konohamaru again. Konohamaru was still waiting outside the shut cubical over two hours since Naruto had previously seen him. Naruto decided that he would suggest that Konohamaru should fetch a doctor for his 'Boss', but soon decided against it when he noticed that the back of the cubical had been transformed into a makeshift door.

Naruto wondered how long it would take Konohamaru to figure out that he was no longer waiting for anyone.

Naruto left extra early the next morning. It was a well known fact that Sasuke was one of the first to arrive at school, and it was also a decent time to talk to the boy without a large 'audience'.

Naruto reached the academy, opened the classroom door, and ignored the quizzical stare of Shikamaru as he walked in far earlier than he was known to. Shikamaru (as strange as it may have sounded) was always the first person to be anywhere. It was quite funny, especially considering the boy's normal outlook on things as well as general lazy behaviour.

No, Shikamaru was not lazy, just uncaring for bothering matters.

Naruto glanced around, before sitting down in one of the seats. Sasuke had not arrived yet, and the only other people in were two girls that always sat up the back. Of course, the other students' attentions were all focussed on Naruto. Naruto was always late to class, that was if he even bothered to show up.

Slowly, the class began to fill, but there was still no sign of Sasuke. Naruto grumbled under his breath in slight annoyance. It figured that on the day that he would finally turn up early, Sasuke would possibly not turn up at all.

Naruto was about to nod off, but glanced over when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hmm? Sakura?"

He was confused what did Sakura want with him? Naruto glanced around himself, checking to make sure that he was not actually already sitting next to Sasuke, and he stared back even more confused when that turned out to not be the case.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Sakura asked.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up. This was VERY different to how he could remember it. Sure, Sakura was not blushing, and she also did not sound all too interested, but she was still asking Naruto if she could sit beside him, despite there actually being spare seats all around the classroom.

"Go ahead," Naruto said.

Something was definitely strange with this past.

Sakura nodded her thanks, and waited for Naruto to move a seat over so that she could sit down. She brushed the wrinkles out of her dress, and then tightened the forehead protector that she wore like a headband. Sakura then stretched and turned to face Naruto, who was as confused as ever.

Had he played with the timeline to have Sakura like him?

Sakura cleared her throat. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You're acting differently too," she said, flicking a strand of hair out of her face. "I thought that you might have been feeling unwell."

Naruto frowned. "Is this solely because I just said that we should become friends, you know, instead of asking you out on a date, like I normally do?" he asked.

He had a sneaking suspicion. . .

Sakura nodded, and Naruto groaned. His forehead met the desk quite loudly.

"I was also curious as to how you knew what elemental affinities were; we're not meant to learn about them just yet, and you don't strike me as the type of person that would study ahead too far."

Naruto sighed and lifted his head back up. "I told you," he said, "I'm from the future. I was sent back in time due to an accident, I suppose."

It was Sakura's turn to sigh. "Still with that?"

"How else can you explain my sudden bout of 'maturity'?"

"You're still hardly mature," she said, shifting so that she could rest her chin on her hands. "What you said before. . . Do you really think that I'll end up on the same team as Sasuke and you?"

'_I hope so,'_ Naruto thought. "Of course! I've already lived through all of this before."

Sakura suddenly blushed. "I sure hope so," she whispered.

Naruto frowned. It was obvious that she was talking about Sasuke. Well, he should not care at all, this Sakura was twelve, while Naruto was a seventeen year old trapped in a twelve year old's body. Naruto should be the mature one, here.

"What's going on?" Ino asked Shikamaru. The two had been friends (mostly without a choice in the matter) ever since they could first walk. No, it was probably before that. "Why is Sakura sitting next to Naruto?"

Shikamaru blinked at the girl. "Don't know," he said, shrugging. "But if you think that's weird, wait until you hear this: Naruto was the fourth person at school today."

Ino gaped. "He was early?!"

Shikamaru nodded. "I was also quite surprised. Also, Sasuke has not turned up yet."

"I can see that!"

"No, he's always one of the first here. Think, woman, Naruto was here early, and Sasuke has not shown up yet."

Ino ran the thought through her head, and her eyebrows climbed her forehead. "Naruto is Sasuke?"

". . . Ino, please tell me why I bother to put up with you again?"

"Oh, shut it, Shikamaru!" Ino hissed. "I meant that they've switched places, somewhat."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Go annoy someone else," he grumbled.

"Okay, then, smarty-britches, what do YOU think is going on?"

Shikamaru shrugged again. "I have no idea; that was why I decided to ask you. I'll be asking Chouji as soon as he turns up. Now scram."

"Shikamaru, you suck," Ino said, before poking out her tongue and walking off elsewhere.

The classroom soon filled completely, and there was still no sign of Sasuke just yet. Thankfully, there also was no sign of Iruka, or any teacher, for that matter. Naruto shuddered a little. He could not help but to think that both oddities were somehow related.

"Naruto," Sakura spoke up. "Do you have any idea where Sasuke might be?"

Naruto shook his head. "To be completely honest with you, I have no idea."

Sakura sighed again. "Okay, then, I'm going to ask you a few questions."

"Knock yourself out," Naruto said, resting his head on the desk.

"Do I marry Sasuke in the future?" Sakura shyly asked. It was a rare occurrence for the girl to be shy.

"Nope," Naruto said, having dragged out the 'n' a little. "I told you that I was searching for Sasuke. If it matters much to you, you were searching for him too."

"Oh," she said.

Naruto wanted to say "'oh'? You seem rather disappointed", but he decided that he still liked not having a dead arm so early in the morning.

The door to the classroom opened, and Iruka entered with Sasuke at his side. Naruto, Sakura, and the rest of the class perked up at this. It was certainly a strange day, indeed.

"You go find a seat, and I'll be with everyone shortly," Iruka said, half to Sasuke and half to the class.

Sasuke wordlessly nodded, and wandered over to sit beside Naruto.

Naruto began to sweat a little. Since when did Sasuke, of all people, decide to sit beside him on their own free will. Sakura deciding to do so was odd, but she had something to ask, so it made sense. Sasuke, though.

"You're late," Kiba called out, from the back of the class.

"I know," Sasuke replied.

Sasuke was never a man of many words.

"So, where were you?" Kiba continued. The boy seemed genuinely interested, as was the rest of the class.

"Training," Sasuke said.

"And Master Iruka had to go and pick you up?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"I said 'yes'."

Kiba scrunched up his face. "I know what you said, bastard."

Kiba fell silent, having given up, and the class looked away, apparently also losing interest. Naruto huffed, and started to tap his heels on the floor. He stopped as soon as he was elbowed in the side by Sakura.

"Naruto," she whispered. "Mind if we swap seats?"

Naruto shrugged again. "Sure," he said, as he stood up.

Sakura smiled at him, genuinely happy, and then stood up and sat in Naruto's chair. Naruto sat in Sakura's chair, and went back to resting his head on the table.

"Are you really from the future?"

Naruto glanced over in Sasuke's direction with a bored look on his face. He then glanced more at Sakura. "You told him already?" he asked.

"You told me," Sasuke said.

"Oh."

"Well?"

"Why do you ask? I didn't think that you'd be one to believe me on that," Naruto said, sitting up. The morning just became interesting again.

"I don't," Sasuke said.

"Then why ask?"

Sasuke did not answer.

Naruto sighed and stretched. Well, that was certainly weird, if anything. Oh, who was he kidding? With talking to Sasuke, those kinds of 'ask a question, not reply' conversations were always like that. Naruto was elbowed by Sakura again.

"Naruto, when did you tell Sasuke that you were from the future?" she asked.

Sasuke also glanced at Sakura, almost as though he was surprised.

Naruto frowned. Sasuke had said, right in front of Sakura, that Naruto was from the future, and yet he seemed surprised when Sakura questioned him (Naruto) about the same thing. There was a reason why Naruto thought of Sasuke as strange.

"Back when . . . you know . . . at his house," Naruto replied, truthfully.

He half expected Sasuke to glare at him, and was quite surprised when that was not the case.

"Okay," Sakura replied, and then went quiet.

Then Sasuke spoke. "When did you tell Sakura?"

Naruto stared at the boy as though he was an idiot. Sasuke's face was completely serious.

"Yesterday."

"Hn."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He hated talking to Sasuke. Naruto swore that if one was to have a conversation with Sasuke and a rock, then the rock would be the more talkative of the two. Heck, even Shino was more talkative.

Naruto glanced over to Shino, and froze when he noticed that the boy was also staring at him. In that moment, an unspoken challenge was issued for a staring contest, the first to glance away loses. Naruto stared at Shino for what seemed to be an eternity, but was probably only about twenty seconds, before he noticed a small bug crawl out of Shino's ear, up the boys face, and then disappear into his hair. Naruto shuddered, glancing away, while Shino, then, stared of elsewhere, the hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Alright, everyone, I have your teams and teachers all sorted here for you," Iruka called, re-entering the classroom.

Sakura visibly stiffened. Naruto glanced at her, already knowing what was possibly going through her mind. The girl wanted to know if Naruto had been correct, at all.

"I hope that you're right, Naruto," she whispered to him.

Naruto hid a small laugh. "Of course I'm right," he said, confidently. Inside, though, he was very worried.

"Right about what?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto glared at the boy. So, now Sasuke wants to talk.

"Naruto predicted our team and teacher, as well as Ino-pig's team," Sakura explained.

Sasuke then glanced at Naruto expectantly. "Tell me," he said.

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Master Iruka will say it in a moment, anyway, idiot."

Surprisingly, Sasuke did not glare at him. "Tell me," he said.

Naruto shook his head. "No."

"What did she mean by 'our team'?"

"No."

"That's not an answer."

"Neither is 'hn', but you tend to use it often enough."

"Hn."

"SEE!" Naruto shouted at the boy.

"Naruto, sit down and shut-up," Iruka ordered, causing a few students to giggle.

Naruto said his apologies and fell silent. Iruka continued with reading to the class, and Sakura began to whisper to Sasuke. Naruto frowned. That was one thing that he hated about Sakura, she would spill pretty much anything.

"Sakura, Sasuke, please pay attention," Iruka reprimanded.

"Yes Master Iruka," Sakura said, smiling. Sasuke just nodded.

"Alright," Iruka continued. "Team Seven contains Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your instructor will be Kakashi Hatake."

"Holy crap."

"Mind your manners, Sakura."

"Yes Master Iruka."

1

For a change of pace, Naruto had two people sitting with him at lunch. Sakura was happily chatting away to Sasuke, and Sasuke appeared to be quite happily ignoring her. The weird thing, though, was the fact that they had decided to sit on either side of Naruto. Deep down, Naruto suspected that Sasuke was using him as some sort of pseudo shield to hide behind, but he had no real proof of it. Suddenly, Sakura turned to Naruto.

"How old were you when you were thrown back in time?"

"Seventeen," Naruto replied, opening another packet of melon bread.

"Are you really from the future?" Sasuke asked, suddenly deciding to talk.

Naruto sighed. "Yes, or do you still not believe me?"

There was no reply from Sasuke, and Naruto began to wonder how it was that he missed Sasuke again. Naruto began to wonder how he had become friends with the boy in the first place. Certainly he must have been thoroughly crazy the first time around, and had sobered up during the time that he was separated from Sasuke. Yes, that was probably it. He had been crazy for liking the boy at all.

"Admittedly, Naruto," Sakura began, "it is still difficult to believe you. Though it is fun to listen to your stories, just being able to predict our teams and teachers is not enough to prove that you're from the future. Perhaps you stole a look at those papers, or are scarily good with predictions, overall."

"And my sudden increase in 'maturity'?"

"You hit your head, or something."

Naruto gave the girl an incredulous stare. What would he have to do to actually convince them that he was from the future? He had thought that they did finally believe him, but it appeared that they were really just humouring him. He had to think, there should be some way that he could convince them. He could do predictions again, but what could he remember well enough to 'predict' back to them. Did anything really amazing happen on this day at all?

"Do I manage to kill _that man_?" Sasuke asked, quickly dragging Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Yes, you do," Naruto replied, not even needing to think. "After a couple of run-ins with him, you do manage to kill him."

Sasuke smirked. "I believe that he's from the future."

Both Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke as though the boy had sprouted a second head. Sakura seemed to ponder her options for a short while, before grinning and nodding. Naruto frowned at her. Seriously, Sasuke only 'believed' him because he had said something that the boy had wanted to hear. Sakura only believed in him because Sasuke appeared to do so. Naruto sighed, understanding that Sasuke was going to really be the hardest to convince, if he would be able to convince him at all.

Sasuke was a little shit.

Sakura grinned. "So, is there anything that we should know? Anything that we should do? Anything at all?"

Naruto thought for a moment, before inwardly smirking. He was going to have a bit of fun with his teammates. He would change them to be how he wanted them to be, and he would get his 'happy ending', whether others liked it or not. Naruto always had a selfish streak in him, and that streak was tingling with anticipation.

"Yes, there are some suggestions that I have for you," Naruto said, pulling a thoughtful expression on. "Sakura, you need to be very careful."

"What? Why?" she asked, sounding worried.

"You are known for your quick-temper, but not in a good way. I suggest trying to mellow yourself out a bit, make yourself more agreeable. The reason being that you were attacked, by enemy ninja, because of your temper. They used oil and fire to attack you, scarring your face and body severely."

Sakura started to shake, but out of fear instead of anger, and she nodded slowly. "I'll be cooperative, I promise," she said, adding on what appeared to be a small whimper at the end.

Naruto nodded. "Be as friendly as you can be, and no harm will come to you, but, by no means, should you allow yourself to become a pushover. Cheer up and be proud, but remember to be gentle to friends!"

Sakura suddenly smiled widely. "I promise!" she called, pumping her fist into the air.

Naruto grinned. "Good," he said. He then glanced at Sasuke. "And you."

"Hn."

"You need to also become quite friendly, much more than you certainly are now."

"Why? Do I end up deformed too?" Sasuke asked. Naruto could tell that the boy was mocking him.

"In a way, yes," Naruto said. He was going to enjoy this much more than he should. "Because of your general attitude towards everything, and your general distaste for you own team, you were kidnapped by a creepy old man and transformed into a woman." Sasuke's face actually paled a little, but it was something that could only be seen by those that knew what to look for. "Sasuke, in the future, you end up liking men."

Sasuke stared away, seemingly thinking over his 'future predicament'. Naruto was loving this just a little too much, and was surprised to see that it had affected Sasuke to the point that it had. It appeared that Sasuke could really be just a little too trusting of others. Could be a good thing, could be a bad thing, but, right at the moment, it was a wonderful thing that made Naruto happy that he had the chance to discover and exploit.

Suddenly, Sasuke seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. Ignoring Sakura's insisting that he listen to Naruto's advice, he reached over and awkwardly pulled the blond boy into a hug.

Naruto blinked, glanced slowly to Sasuke, and paled.

"Not me, you dolt!" he shouted, pushing Sasuke away from him.

Sasuke was, indeed, a little shit.

And the 'innocent' stare on Sasuke's face meant that he was very much aware of it too.

"We never end up as a couple," Naruto said, glaring at Sasuke. "Ever."

"Hn."

"EVER!"

2

Kakashi knew that, from the very first moment that he met them, he was going to be in for some very powerful migraines.

His day had started off normal, uneventful, and partly relaxing. He woke up a little later than normal, spent the next few hours paying his respects to the memorial stone, and then casually started on his way to the academy to pick up his brat students. On the way there, he was challenged to several rock/paper/scissors games by Gai, and was even 'kidnapped' by the Hokage, made to look through the homes of his students. Less privacy for them, and slightly more annoyance for him.

When he had finally made it to the classroom, a few hours late (not that he really cared), he was greeted by an un-expectant sight. He had expected to arrive and discover a grumpy team as well as several 'booby-traps'.

No, what greeted him was much worse.

The three students were all perfectly silent, sitting side by side in the front row, feet together, backs straight, both arms on the desk (one hand resting on top of the other), and all with calm, happy smiles on their faces.

All at once, the three of them stood and bowed. "Good afternoon, Master Kakashi. We are all pleased to meet you," they said. The stepford smiles refused to leave their faces.

Kakashi shuddered. Something was certainly not right with his team.

"My first opinion of all of you is. . ." He struggled to think of a good word to describe them, without majorly offending them. ". . . I believe that an exorcism may be in order—"

"Just like my brave uncle," the pink-haired girl said, calmly.

"My mother had one of those once; she stopped speaking the dead language after," the black-haired boy said, also not breaking the character he had on.

"We love you, Master Kakashi," the blond-haired boy said.

The three of them all nodded at once.

". . . Meet me on the roof!" Kakashi said quickly, before teleporting himself away as fast as was possible.

As soon as the man was out of the room, Naruto and Sakura high-fived each other. Sasuke just smirked to himself. They all had to admit that what they did was the most fun that any of them had had in a long time. Even Sasuke found that he had fun.

"We should probably head straight on up," Naruto suggested. "Don't want to keep our _wonderful_ teacher waiting."

"Oh, of course not!" Sakura said in agreeance, trying to hold back a laugh. "I would never dream of such a horrid thing."

Sasuke only smirked. He never thought that it would be possible to love his teammates, but he was pretty sure that what he was feeling was not hate.

It was looking to be the start of a very, very beautiful friendship.

Together, the three of them walked straight up to the roof, joking about what they should do next. Well, Naruto and Sakura joked, and Sasuke just listened, giving the occasional 'hn' as his input. In the end, they decided that they would behave normally for their teacher. They would not want to scare him off too quickly.

However, Naruto had one more plan that his friends could help him with.

They could almost see Kakashi flinch as they approached him.

"Well, we should all try and get to know each other better," Kakashi suggested, sounding just the tiniest bit nervous. "We'll give our names, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. Here, I'll go first. I'm—"

"Kakashi Hatake, a man who likes to read questionable material," Sakura began.

"You dislike being interrupted and challenged to competitions by your 'eternal rival', Maito Gai," Sasuke continued.

"Your hobbies vary from missions, to watching over the memorial stone, and your current dream for the future would be to get the hell away from us three," Naruto finished. "How'd we do?"

Kakashi's one visible eye was opened about as wide as it would go, and his hands shook just the tiniest amount.

"My turn!" Naruto suddenly called, putting his hand up in the air. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki, aka just-plain-awesome. I like ramen and I dislike having to wait the three minutes that it takes for ramen to cook. My hobby would be pranks, and my dream for the future is to get back to my own time!"

Kakashi stared at him, incredulously. At least the boy's confessing to loving pranks could explain the classroom deal, and the knowledge on him.

"Awesome!" Sakura cheered. "My name is Sakura Haruno, aka cute-and-cheerful. I like. . ." she glanced at Sasuke and blushed deeply. ". . . and my good friend, Naruto. My dislikes would be those that oppose my friends. My hobby is . . . And my dream for the future is to. . ." she glanced at Sasuke again. ". . . to become a bride, I guess."

Kakashi inwardly sighed. _'At least she's confident,'_ he thought.

"Okay," Sasuke started. "My Name is Sasuke Uchiha, aka stronger-than-Naruto—"

"HEY!" Naruto called.

"— There are many things that I dislike, and I don't have many hobbies. My dream for the future is to kill a certain man."

'_I thought that might be the case,'_ Kakashi thought, with a small sigh. "So, what about your likes, then? Got any of those?"

Sasuke thought for a moment, before nodding. "Yes, I do," he admitted, before very seriously tacking on, "I like . . . hugs."

'_Wait, what?'_ Kakashi thought, almost choking on his own saliva.

By the looks of the faces that Naruto and Sakura were pulling, they had not expected Sasuke to say such a thing either. Kakashi was just as shocked as them. Sasuke had said that with the utmost seriousness in his voice, and on his face.

Kakashi sighed; he prayed that he would not have to pass the brats, because, if he had to pass them, he was going to have a very long few years, and he knew it. The best that he could hope for would be that the students were exceptional so that they could graduate early. Or, they could receive a second teacher. He briefly wondered if Anko would be happy with her own team of brats. Well, the woman had been just a little upset that she was not permitted to have her own little group to corrupt, but the Hokage had been worried about the village. One Anko was more than enough. Then Kakashi wondered why Gai had been permitted to have his own team. He thought one Gai would be more than enough for ANY village, but the Hokage had not thought so.

By the looks of how things were going, they were going to end up with two Gai's. Kakashi inwardly groaned.

Kakashi stared back at his team. Perhaps, just perhaps, with his influence, the Sasuke kid could turn into a miniature version of him. That would shut Gai's mini-me up and keep him entertained. Yes, but what could Kakashi do with the other two? Would asking Anko to help him be a good idea? Would Sakura just turn into another Anko? Then there was Naruto . . .

Kakashi supposed that it would be a VERY bad idea to wish that Obito was still alive so that he could train the brat. He also guessed that it would be an even worse idea to bring Obito back to life just to train the brat. Granted, Kakashi would love to see his old friend again, but he was pretty sure that allowing Obito to meet Naruto would be a very, very bad idea. Neither of the two needed any encouragement, and yet he had the sneaking suspicion that they would provide each other with more than enough.

Kakashi thought that he could hear a ghostly chuckle coming from somewhere, but he ignored it.

"Okay, so I have some news for you kids," Kakashi said. "You're not actually ninja yet."

Nothing, not even a peep.

Oh, how Kakashi hated his team.

He coughed. "Well, you all still need to participate in a survival test. If you fail, you'll be sent straight back to the academy, you got that? Also, don't eat breakfast beforehand, because you'll only end up throwing up!"

Still nothing, this was no fun.

"I'll expect to see you all at Training Ground 14 at 6am sharp." He glared at them. "Do. Not. Be. Late."

Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura turned to talk to Naruto. "It was just like you said," she said. "We have to take a survival test before we can become ninja. Failure means that we go back to the academy."

"Yes," Naruto said. "Also, let's remember to meet up. Trust me when I say that you guys WILL want breakfast."

Sakura nodded. Sasuke glanced over.

Naruto frowned. "I've got a question for you, Bastard," he said. Sakura walked away, probably heading back to the classroom.

"What?" Sasuke asked, sounding bored.

"I'm sorry about what happened at your place a few nights ago, but what the heck was up with your introduction?"

Sasuke shrugged. "When you did that, I was surprised, shocked and angry, but part of me could not resist giving your 'suggestion' a go. Sure, I felt stupid hugging a pillow, but I felt so much calmer afterwards. Then I thought, hey, if you were right about the calming properties of hugs, then perhaps you were right on the strengthening ones too. I'll attempt anything if it promises to make me stronger—"

"Oh, boy, tell me about it."

"—Then I tried some techniques that I was previously having trouble with. I'll tell you what, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had less trouble performing them—"

"That's just general training and optimism."

"—I didn't know that an idiot like you would know so much—"

". . . I hate you. . ."

"—I was ecstatic—"

"Wait, ecstatic?"

"—So I'll have to say 'thank you Naruto'," Sasuke said, before walking away.

Naruto was left on the roof with just a plain, dumb look on his face. He felt that he could not be blamed for it, either. It was not an everyday occurrence that Sasuke was chatty, positive, mentioned that he could feel emotions other than anger and annoyance, and would also thank a person, let alone Naruto.

Naruto groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The one time that he ever chooses to listen to me at all, it's when I'm trying to make up an excuse for hugging him. What the hell is wrong with him?"

Deep down, Naruto had the horrible feeling that Sasuke was really just messing with him.

* * *

That was chapter four, and I hoped that you enjoyed reading it.

See you again next week.


	5. Friendship Involves Failure

Here's chapter five, right and ready.

I will also point out that I dislike pairings, and so there won't actually be any happening within this story. I'll keep the more canon examples in, though. e.g. Lee's one-sided crush on Sakura, and Sakura's one-sided on Sasuke.

Thank you to everyone that has kept reading up until this point, and thank you for all of your lovely reviews.

* * *

** Friendship Involves Failure**

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all turned up to the training area on time, six am on the dot. They tiredly greeted each other, Naruto and Sakura being the only ones that added in a bright smile. Sasuke was mostly just quiet and reserved. Naruto suspected that the boy was actually just very tired.

Sakura stretched. "So, what now?" she asked.

Sasuke nodded, and glanced at Naruto.

Naruto grinned. "Let's decide on a place to head for breakfast," he suggested. "Master Kakashi may have said that we shouldn't, but he was just trying to make this activity much harder for us. After breakfast, I'll tell you about what's in store for us today."

Sasuke scoffed. "Why not tell us that over breakfast?"

Naruto glared at the boy. "Because some people like to eat while having a friendly conversation, not discussing plans and information."

"Naruto, how about we discuss the test first, and then we'll converse while back at the training area," Sakura suggested.

Naruto stared over to the girl, feeling a little upset. Why did she always have to agree with Sasuke, but never with him?

"Fine," he grumbled, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "But who's paying for breakfast?"

Sasuke smirked. "You, of course," he said.

Sasuke's smirk quickly disappeared as soon as Naruto turned to grin at him. Sasuke did not like that grin at all, not even a little bit.

"How kind of you, Sasuke," Naruto said, grin never faltering. "Buyer chooses the restaurant."

And that was how Naruto got Sasuke to eat at Ichiraku, despite Sasuke's dislike for ramen in general. Sakura did not seem to mind too much, though. She would just occasionally complain about how it was not a healthy meal, but she was perfectly fine otherwise. Naruto enjoyed his breakfast, and he continued onto his third bowl. The food was cheap, the company was nice and he had not seen Teuchi since he had bolted off on him on the first day he woke up in the past.

Life was good, and the noodles were even better.

Sasuke snuck a few condiments into Naruto's bowl, but Naruto did not mind.

"So, the survival test, then," Sasuke began. "What's going to happen with it?"

Naruto slurped up a few more noodles. "Master Kakashi is going to make us wait for a long time, before finally turning up. He'll challenge us to fight him for two bells on his waist. He'll try and trick us into thinking that only two people will be allowed to pass, but the truth is that he just wants us to use teamwork." Naruto chuckled. "As long as we work together, we should be fine." He then dug through his pocket and pulled out three blue permanent markers. "We can also have a little bit of fun, as well."

Sakura and Sasuke took one marker each.

"And what's the plan to have fun?" Sakura asked, developing a wide grin on her face.

Naruto also grinned. "While two people distract him, the third gets to do whatever they want."

Sasuke smirked. "I like this idea."

And he did.

1

Their breakfast was a decent three hours long, and they made it to the training area (after a fair amount of dawdling) at about nine-thirty. It was a good, relaxing morning that they spent talking to each other, and generally just getting along. Sakura was exceptionally fun to be with, not to mention very talkative (but Naruto did not mind that at all). Sasuke, though. . . Sasuke was still a complete weirdo, Naruto believed. The boy was all kinds of strange, and Naruto was having a difficult time trying to work out how the boy felt about different things. Even 'his' Sasuke was easier to decipher than one that could always be lying and playing along, or could be honest and just quiet.

Naruto sighed; at least Sakura was pretty cool.

Sasuke walked off to sit beneath a large tree, Sakura chose to sit close by, to the boy, and Naruto chose to sit with his back against one of the three stumps. He could remember when he had been tied up to the stumps for failing the test (and getting caught trying to steal the food, but that was uncalled for), and all of the humiliation that he had felt because of it. This time round, though, he promised himself that he was not going to have that happen again. This time around, Naruto would not be the person tied to the stump.

This time around, Naruto knew the goal behind the test, so they would all actually succeed in getting the bells.

Kakashi would not know what hit him, but Naruto was positive that he would be thoroughly impressed.

Or scared.

"You know," Naruto called out, gaining the attentions of his two teammates. "We should really work on becoming the best young ninja that Konoha would have ever laid its eyes upon."

Sasuke snorted. Naruto glared at the boy, wondering what he had found so funny.

"From deadlast to first, eh?" he said, shaking his head. "That would be very amusing." He then grew very serious. "I want this to happen."

Naruto blinked, a little shocked. He had not been expecting that.

"It would amuse me greatly," Sasuke explained, once again reminding Naruto that Sasuke was still Sasuke.

Sakura nodded. "I'm all for it too," she said. Anything to gain Sasuke's attention. . .

Naruto pumped his fist into the air. "WOOHOO!" he cried. "We should SO do a training montage!"

Naruto was met with silence from his two teammates. Eventually, Sakura spoke.

"Training montage?" she asked, as though she had not heard correctly. "What do you mean by 'training montage'?"

Sasuke frowned. He did not like where this was heading.

Naruto grinned. "You know, a training montage! Just like in movies; the main characters train heaps, and cool music plays in the background. It would be as though we were in a real movie."

Sasuke shook his head.

Sakura giggled. "That's silly," she said. "No good movie would subject its audience to a training montage." She thought for a moment. "What about a cartoon?"

Then, it was Sasuke's turn to speak.

"Hn, you can't be serious. I refuse to believe that you're serious," he said, folding his arms. "No good cartoon would subject its audience to . . . to _this!_" He motioned his arms out, showing that he was referring to just the three of them as a whole, but also mainly Naruto. "Especially not a training montage; the both of you are aiming much too high."

Sakura went quiet, while Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Oh? Then what do _you_ think that we would exist in?" he asked.

Sasuke smirked and shrugged. "It's simple; a poorly written fanwork."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue that he was much too cool for any form of fanwork, but was interrupted by Kakashi's laughing. Sasuke and Sakura also glanced over to where their jounin instructor was standing, neither too sure on how to act. Naruto walked over to where his friends were. This was not right, Kakashi was not meant to show up for at least another twenty minutes, or even an hour.

Kakashi shook his head. "Come on, you three, that's enough talk about your fanworks and cartoons," he said. Though Kakashi would never admit it, he actually secretly wrote fanfiction for his favourite book series. These works were often written, reread, enjoyed, and then burnt to a crisp so that no other person would ever see head nor tail of them, and Kakashi's secret would stay forever safe. ". . . You all do still watch cartoons, right?"

Without missing a beat, Sasuke replied. "Of course we do, we're still young enough." He turned to his teammates. "Right?"

Naruto had no idea why Sasuke had said that, but it would appear that the boy had just dug himself a hole of humiliation to wallow in.

"Actually, uhh, I stopped watching cartoons quite a long time ago."

Well, it was 'technically' true. He was a seventeen year old trapped in a twelve year old's body.

Sakura blushed. "Umm, yeah, I've never been allowed to watch cartoons," she confessed. "My parents say that it distracts from study. . . B-but that does not mean to say that you should be ashamed, Sasuke! I'm positive that, if I was allowed to, I would be still watching them too!"

Naruto grinned at Sasuke. Oh, he liked where this was going.

Kakashi and Sakura glanced at the boy expectantly.

'_Shit,'_ Sasuke thought.

There were days on which he really hated himself.

Today was one of them.

Kakashi laughed jovially. He walked over towards a smaller stump and placed an alarm clock down on it. It was finally time for his payback, and he was planning on making the kids **suffer**. He would laugh at their pain, dance in their pity, and throw a pool-party in their tears.

Kakashi blinked. Perhaps he had been spending just a little too much time around Anko.

He shook his head, and smiled back at his students. "Okay, so I suppose that you three would like to know just what activity it was that I had planned for you today," he said. He was met with silence, but passed it off of interest, and he held up two bells. "I have two bells here. You three are going to try to steal these bells off me. The two of you that obtain a bell will become my students, while the last one—" he glanced at Naruto, causing the boy to glare at him, "—will be sent straight back to the academy."

There was still no reaction out of the three. It was not fair.

"Now, you'll all have one hour to complete this task, and you shall only be permitted to have lunch if you succeed." He glared at them. "I want you three to come at me with the intention to kill—"

"No problem," Sasuke said, giving a shrug.

Kakashi glanced over to the boy, feeling slightly annoyed. He was not too sure if Sasuke thought of the activity as a joke, or if he really did not mind the idea of killing his fresh, new jounin instructor.

"You won't actually kill me," he said, and he watched as Sakura put her hand back down and glance away.

Yes, he hated the three of them.

Kakashi set the alarm, and faced his 'brats' once more. "Time starts now!" he ordered.

It actually made him happy to see that the three genin had already fled from immediate view. Well, it seemed as though they were promising. They could mature over time, and Kakashi would then have the best team ever.

A shiver ran up his spine, and it was not the good kind.

Naruto stared out from his hidden position inside the hollow of a tree. If he had learnt anything from his first time around, it was that he should have hidden first, and used teamwork instead of attacking on his own. This time, he would not be humiliated. He turned to where Sakura was hiding, and he began to sign to her. After a number of years as a ninja, he had managed to pick up a few tricks. He was not the best at signing, but he knew enough to get his basic plan across. Sakura was also his choice because she was the only one (out of the three of them) that would normally be able to understand it, at all. That, and she was more of an enjoyable talk partner than Sasuke, but Naruto thought that was obvious.

/We attack together; tell other./

Sakura, who was watching Naruto from her hiding place beneath a bush, gave a nod to say that she understood Naruto's signing. It had been terrible, but it was a pretty good attempt by the boy, she supposed. Not everyone was as intelligent as her, and, though she thought very highly of the other boy, she knew that it would be a bad idea to sign to Sasuke.

Sakura stared over to Sasuke's hiding spot, and she waited until he made eye contact with her. When he finally did, she had to beat down a raging blush. She was not going to let her emotions take over. She began to mouth the plan to Sasuke, and she made some basic gestures, trying to pass the message on. He was pretty good at lip-reading, she thought. Sasuke was quiet for a moment, and then he gave her a nod. Sakura had to beat down a squeal.

Sasuke, who was high in a tree, had watched Sakura mouth a few words to him, and then act everything out with large, exaggerated gestures.

He had no idea what she was trying to say, but he nodded anyway.

He figured that, because Naruto had mentioned teamwork over breakfast, as well a plan for some fun, the three of them were meant to meet up and attack. He smirked. Yes, he would just follow their lead.

As soon as Sasuke noticed that Naruto and Sakura had started to move, he rolled his shoulder in anticipation. He was so ready.

2

Kakashi scratched his head, unsure of what to make of what had just happened. The time was up, and none of the genin had been successful. In truth, he had not expected them to actually succeed, but he had been hoping for a little bit more variety than they had shown. He had not expected them to behave as they had, either. Back when he had initially looked up information on them, he learned that they did not tend to get along.

If they did not get along, then what the heck was it that he just experienced?

Kakashi faced the three genin (who were all tied to separate stumps) and scratched his head. "Well. . . this is certainly a first. . ." he started. "Despite the fact that you all worked together, you're not supposed to all just charge me head on. . . You all fail!"

Without even waiting for a response, Kakashi turned around and walked away. He left the two lunchboxes (that he had previously purchased for the 'winners') in front of the genin. He smirked to himself, knowing that it was a cruel thing to do. Good, they needed a decent punishment of some sort.

Naruto sighed. "Well, we haven't failed _just_ yet."

Three pairs of eyes stared at the back of Kakashi's jounin vest. On it, in blue permanent marker, were three signatures that said 'Naruto', 'Sakura', and 'Sasuke'. Just below Sasuke's name was an extra part scribbled hurriedly that read: 'likes cartoons'.

Sasuke gave no indication as to whether or not he noticed it.

"He just hasn't discovered the best part yet," Sakura said, not bothering to hold back her grin. "Mission—"

"—Accomplished," Sasuke said, finishing for Sakura.

Two Naruto clones walked out from hiding and fist-bumped one another.

3

Kakashi did not happen to like all the funny stares that he was receiving. To begin with, he had no idea as to why he was receiving funny looks at all, and not knowing annoyed him. He saw how the civilians just stared at him strangely, while ninja (around his level, or ANBU) began to snicker as soon as he had passed them.

He wondered if he had anything on his face at all, as well as if he was still wearing his mask. Perhaps he had bird droppings on his person, or maybe he had twigs all caught in his hair. Paint? Chalk? A bullseye sign stuck to his back?

Everything was negative.

Kakashi instantly blamed his team; especially Naruto, who seemed like the ringleader.

"OH! Kakashi! My Eternal Rival!"

Son of a. . .

Run, Kakashi, run.

4

There were two lunchboxes, but there were three of them. It obviously meant that either they try and divide all of the food evenly, or two people could share while the third person got a lunch to themselves. In normal cases, the first idea would have been the best choice, unfortunately, though, Team Seven were not the kind to go for the brighter option.

Naruto grinned. "Sakura, you can share with me, if you want."

Sakura shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but no." She turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke, we could, you know, share together. . ."

Sasuke shook his head slowly. "Sakura, you should eat it," he said. "Naruto and I can share."

Naruto frowned. He swore that he had caught a glimpse of a sly smirk, but he was not too sure of it. "I don't want to share with you," he said.

Sasuke just shrugged. "Fine, then," he said, breaking apart the chopsticks. "Go hungry."

Naruto's glare intensified. "I hate you, you know that?"

"Hn."

5

Of all the emotions that he could possibly be feeling, Kakashi was feeling proud. It was a feeling that he had thought that he would never experience with any genin, but he was certainly feeling it towards **them**. He had taken on quite a number of teams before, only to be overwhelmed with disappointment, and then send the kids back to the academy. No, this team was different. He was proud of them, which was strange, and he could recognise the raw potential that they all displayed. Even if they were a little unorthodox, he felt that he could really get to like them. He could grow to enjoy teaching them.

That same shiver from before climbed his spine again.

Kakashi had originally planned to leave the kids tied up, hungry, and able to see the lunchboxes as punishment. He would return to the academy, wait about an hour, and then he would tell the Hokage that he had failed his team. A scout would be sent out to untie the brats, and another scout would retrieve the unopened lunchboxes.

Well, Kakashi's plan had been disturbed the moment that Gai had called out to him. Kakashi tried to ignore the man, and then took off like wildfire. Gai had caught him, by tackling him from behind, and had proceeded to rave on about how well his own team was going. Of course, the residents of Konoha made no move to help Kakashi, nor did they even seem slightly fazed at the sight of a man in tight green spandex that was sitting on the back of a one-eyed jounin.

It was a more common occurrence than Kakashi willingly would admit.

Amidst Gai's raving, the man mentioned that he looked forward to meeting Kakashi's "very youthful students". Kakashi had scoffed at that remark, but Gai continued on, as though he had not heard him. Gai talked about how he was jealous of the apparent obvious closeness that Kakashi shared with his students. Of course, Kakashi had been a little confused, but mostly chalked it up to Gai being Gai. Gai then said that he would also try and get his students' 'autographs' to keep as a good reminder of their friendship.

Gai, then, took off. He had not even bothered to challenge Kakashi to a match of any kind, which was what Kakashi had suspected that the man had originally chased him down to do.

Kakashi was confused at Gai's mentioning of 'autographs', especially how it was implied that Kakashi had done the same. He returned home to check himself over. When he removed his jounin vest, though. . .

Kakashi slipped on a new one and raced his way back to meet his students. Of course, the memorial stone called out to him along the way, and Kakashi was a weak enough man to give in to its 'seduction'.

Another two hours passed before Kakashi actually managed to make it back to his students. The three of them were all still tied up, and he felt a twinge of guilt.

As much guilt as he could feel towards them, that was. In other words, it meant "not much".

He cleared his throat and had to hold back a grin as the genin all glanced up to him expectantly.

"You all pass," he said, reading the various degrees of happiness that was sweeping over the faces of his students. "Please, never write on my clothes again."

"We promise, Master Kakashi!" Naruto and Sakura called. Sasuke remained quiet.

Kakashi glanced at the ground for a moment, and suddenly frowned. At his feet were two mostly empty lunchboxes.

Mostly empty lunchboxes that he had bought and left to torture them.

The chopsticks had been used as well. That meant that a human ate them.

"You lot. . ." Kakashi stared at the genin. "You managed to escape and eat the food?"

He was positive that the knots he tied were much more advanced than the ones that fresh genin were capable of escaping.

"Yup," Naruto said, beaming.

"And then you all tied yourselves back up?"

"Sounds about right," Sakura said, nodding.

What was wrong with his students?

"Why would you tie yourselves back up?" He could not understand their reason (or, lack-thereof) for doing so.

"Because we could," Sakura explained. She grinned.

Kakashi could feel a headache coming on, and he made it worse by slapping his own forehead. "You're kidding, right? You escaped, ate the food, and then tied yourselves back up, planning to wait the two and a half hours— which could have possibly turned into the whole day— for me to return?"

Kakashi received three grins as a response. Sasuke was grinning. Kakashi sighed; that headache had hit him fast, and was now wreaking havoc with his brain. Distance was desperately needed.

Out off all the students that the academy had to offer, he had to be given these three.

He did not even have a good reason to fail them.

"Master Kakashi," Naruto called, as soon as Kakashi had turned to leave.

Kakashi glared at the boy. "What?"

"Could you untie us?"

Was the kid serious?

"Untie yourselves!" he ordered, finally getting the chance to leave.

Naruto sighed ad glanced at Sasuke. Naruto was tied to the middle stump, and Sasuke was on his right.

"Well, Sasuke, I guess it's time for us to do the thing that members of your clan do best."

Sasuke stared over, frowning. "What's that?"

A fire-type jutsu would be much too dangerous. . .

Naruto grinned, and it looked as though his face would split in half. "Escape."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. ". . . I hate you."

6

Gai was an idiot, which was the conclusion that most of the jounin instructors came to. They knew that he had waited until the time came that they were all teaching rookies before deciding to bring up a point. It was not necessarily an amazing point either, and a few of the jounin wondered just how long that Gai had been busting to mention it.

"Gai," Asuma began, "you can NOT tell a teacher's inner personality based on the obvious traits of their students."

"But you can!" Gai called, arguing his point with a fair amount of enthusiasm. "Your students are Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara, right?" He thought for a moment, before grinning again. "You can be a little vain and easy to confuse, but you're really a kind person that prefers to think through tough situations."

Gai made it a sport to learn about everyone's students as soon as possible.

Asuma opened his mouth to argue against it, but quickly shut it again. For some reason, he found himself believing Gai.

Gai turned to the next person. "Miss Kurenai, your students are Hyuuga, Inuzuka, and Aburame. That tells me that you're a shy individual that can tend to act a little rash at times, but you're, otherwise, quite reserved."

"It's true," Asuma whispered, sounding amazed.

Kurenai shook her head. "No, it's not," she said. "What Gai is doing is not amazing, nor is it clever. He knows us, and he's just trying to match up traits that our students have with our own."

She was ignored.

Gai turned to Kakashi. "What about you? Your students are Uzumaki, Haruno, and Uchiha. What does that tell us about you?"

Kakashi gave Gai a quizzical stare.

Gai looked determined. "My students are Lee, Neji, and Tenten." He spoke less formally about his own team, though the others suspected that it was because he did not know Tenten's surname. "What does that say about my personality?"

Asuma raised his hand, as though he was an eager student. Kurenai glared at him. "It means that you never give up, even if the task is too difficult for you, and that you can keep your calm under the most stressful situations. You also have a habit of underestimating your opponents, but you make up for that by your love for fighting difficult enemies."

"That is exactly correct, Sir Asuma!" Gai cheered.

Kurenai slapped her forehead, while Asuma gave a smug smirk.

Gai faced Kakashi again. "Your true personality is—"

Kakashi slapped his hand over Gai's mouth, and Gai continued to speak despite it. When Gai stopped speaking, Kakashi removed his hand and wiped it on his pants.

"YOU do NOT know my team," Kakashi said, sounding slightly angry. "Their personalities have NOTHING to do with my own. Unlike them, I'm NORMAL."

"Just keep telling yourself that, Kakashi," Asuma sniggered.

Shyly, Iruka spoke up. He had been in the room for a while, wanting to ask Kakashi how Naruto was doing.

"Does. . . Does that mean that I have a multiple-personality disorder?"

Gai cried manly tears. "Why, yes, it does, Iruka-boy! And what a SPLENDID example of a multiple-personality disorder it is!"

Kurenai introduced her head to the wall.

* * *

My update may be a little late (or a day earlier) next week.


	6. Unusual Allies

Chapter six is in, and it's a day (for me, anyway) earlier than before. I will be busy this weekend, so I thought that I might as well get it uploaded now.

Now, the part in here about Kakashi using the tsukuyomi is completely fabricated, but was needed (ever so slightly).

Lastly, I spotted a mistake that I made back in the third chapter in reference to Tobi's clothing. He should not be wearing the cloak at this point and time. That mistake has been corrected.

* * *

** Unusual Allies**

The previous day had been long and tiring. It was constant training on weapon usage and speed control, plus the occasional yet ever 'popular' D-ranked mission to find that damnable cat. Naruto promised himself that, if he were to try and 'correct' this timeline, the first thing that he would do would be to kill Tora. Second thing would be to ban the Daimyo's wife from ever getting another pet.

He was pretty positive that, among fellow ninja, he would be revered as a true hero of justice.

Naruto was still sore all over, especially on his shoulder. Sasuke had given him one hell of a powerful kick there, while they had been sparring, and it was still hurting despite the bruise fading. The exercise had been for them to increase their speed. One person was an attacker, while the other was a dodger. Naruto had been stuck on evasion for that round. After that, they swapped roles. Naruto had been all too happy to attack Sasuke as payback, but the little shit was too fast for him to land a proper hit upon.

Naruto rolled his shoulder, wincing just a little, and he held the small fruit basket closer. It was tiny, only consisting of a few peaches, a plum, and two pears. It was a gift for Mizuki, and he was currently on his way to visit the man in hospital. It was all Iruka's idea, anyway.

Mizuki was in hospital for severe burns to quite a lot of his body, as well as a broken clavicle, a punctured lung, and bad bruising on his ribs. Naruto had no idea what the stupid man had been doing to gain such injuries, but he decided to not question it too far. Naruto could understand the damage coming from fighting another ninja, but it was the burns that stumped him the most. It was as though Mizuki had decided that it would be a good idea to sit in the centre of a bonfire.

Stupid man.

Naruto opened the hospital room door, and sighed as he greeted.

"Hello, Master Mizuki."

The man in question nearly jumped out of his skin.

Naruto stared at him, noting with some amusement how Mizuki looked rather like a horror-movie mummy. He was covered in bandages, and had one of his arms in some kind of sling. It still allowed movement, though. Mizuki's beady little eyes peered out between the folds on his face, and his barely visible mouth scowled.

Naruto held in a chuckle; Mizuki looked as though an incompetent nurse had dressed him in bandages.

Still, by the looks of it whoever it was that was healing the man's burns, they were doing a very good job. Mizuki looked barely scorched, and just mildly sunburnt.

"Master Iruka suggested that I come by and bring you a gift," Naruto said. He placed the measly fruit basket down, and he watched as Mizuki shifted his gaze to frown on that. "So, how 'ya feeling?"

Mizuki snorted. "I'm fine," he said. He glared at Naruto again, and his eyes widened a fraction. "You became a ninja?"

Naruto blinked and subconsciously reached up to touch his forehead protector. Then he grinned.

"Master Iruka passed me after seeing me take down another powerful ninja."

Mizuki shuddered a little. "Yes, I heard about that," he said, glancing towards the window. "But Iruka never said that he had passed you; he just said that you were attacked by a mysterious masked ninja."

Naruto grinned. "Did he say how cool I was?"

"Yeah, he said that you managed to handle the ninja all on your own. He never said what you did, but he wouldn't stop gushing over how far you have come in sheer raw talent." Mizuki shuddered. "He also said that the masked ninja would be put to death if he is caught."

"Oh?"

Naruto thought that to be an interesting idea, and even better if it came true.

Mizuki paled. "Yes, Iruka said that the masked man tricked you into stealing the scroll, and was going to be put to death for planning to harm the village. It's incredible that. . . that. . ."

"That I was correct about the fate of the person that commits that crime?" Naruto offered.

Mizuki vigorously nodded. "Yes, that your prediction was correct. I could have been. . ." He stared back at Naruto. "They really did believe you . . . are . . . are you telling the truth when you claim to be from the future?"

Naruto sighed a little. "Back in my time, you were killed. I decided to try something different here. I'm just lucky that that masked man turned up, though. I had an idea to use, someone to pin the blame upon, but I wasn't too sure how good my story would be," he explained, before grinning sheepishly. "In reality you were just lucky this time around."

Mizuki paled even further. "I'm alive because of a fluke. . ."

"Yes, but—"

"I wanted you dead, but you got away scot-free."

"Does that bother you?"

Mizuki sighed and stared at the ceiling. He looked calmer than before. "Not really," he said. "I'm more bothered by you being a ninja than anything else."

Naruto shrugged. "That's not going to change, though."

"I know."

"So, when do you get discharged?"

"Next week; that'll be when they've finished working on fixing up my burns. Bones are easy to heal, but burns. . . Burns are a little different."

"For some reason, I think that burns and broken bones are more than just a little different from each other," Naruto said, screwing up his face and folding his arms.

Mizuki laughed, but he seemed more calm than mean. "That wasn't what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Naruto asked. He let his arms fall to his sides.

Mizuki smiled sadly. "I'm very tired, Naruto."

Naruto nodded, getting the hint. He turned to leave, but paused at the door. He stood there for a short while, before glancing back, almost hesitantly. He had never really gotten 'on' with Mizuki before and he was not too sure if he would be able to on this time around either. He glanced back to Mizuki.

"It was nice talking to you, Master Mizuki. I hope that you get better soon, and I hope to get along with you in the future."

Mizuki smiled back at him, but he was unable to tell whether or not it was fake. Mizuki had always been very good at hiding his own feelings, proof went to how he tricked the other teachers into thinking that he actually got along with Naruto to begin with. There never seemed to be any animosity, no hesitance, and no blind lying. Unlike Naruto, Mizuki never wore his heart on his sleeve, and it was, perhaps, a good thing.

Naruto nodded again, before exiting the room and shutting the door behind him.

1

Sakura spied Sasuke hiding in the tree just four metres east of her. She knew that she should have been paying attention to the current mission at hand, but they had already completed the mission so many times, and she was just bored with it. She remembered Naruto warning them that the first missions that they would receive would not seem like missions. She hated to admit it, he had been correct. It felt more as though they were anything other than ninja. They were gardeners, babysitters, artists, party clowns, bouncers, rangers, police, sales clerks, shelving grunts, slaves, cleaners, and even animal catchers. It was boring— beyond boring— and she wanted something new.

She wanted to continue pursuing Sasuke, and hoped that something new would come of that. Of course, that was what she always hoped. She was a determined young woman, and she refused to allow anything to get in her way. Even Naruto's warning for Sasuke would not stop her. She would learn to like girls if not as much and more than men. Anything and everything for Sasuke.

She even tried her best to forget about that damn door incident, just for Sasuke. Admittedly, though, that was much harder to do. Every time that she thought that she had forgotten completely, Naruto would bring it back up again in his attempt to learn what had happened. He was foolish, she had thought, a complete idiot for wanting to know. She certainly wished that she was capable of forgetting it, and Naruto just did not seem to understand just how lucky he was for not knowing.

Her teammate, Naruto. . . Naruto, was loud and annoying. She did not entirely believe him on his time-travel excuse, but there had been too many coincidences happening for her to just ignore it completely. She was careful around any of his warnings, and she tried her hardest to be as nice to him as was possible. The truth was, though, she did find herself liking him more and more. She had not expected it, but he was fun and silly. What had first started off as just regard for his warning of her possible fate had turned into something that could really be considered a blooming friendship.

She hoped that Naruto would, perhaps, bring in something new. He always knew when things were about to happen, so she thought about asking him for any exciting details.

Lastly, there was Kakashi, their jounin instructor. He was the reason that they were attending such boring missions, and he usually just got them to train and spar on their time off. He kept to himself, but seemed to be quite friendly, even if it was difficult to get along with him. However, the only real excitement that he ever brought to the team was turning up an hour earlier than normal. Jounin were meant to be punctual, but apparently no-one had ever told Kakashi that.

Sakura glanced up to Sasuke again, and she blushed deeply. He looked so good normally, and his frowning just made him look better. She often wondered what it would be like to see a genuine smile appear on his face. Her heart quickened at the thought, and she quickly turned away as he glanced down to where she was.

She had to remind herself that it would probably be best to continue with the mission. She did not want to faint like Hinata usually did, and Sasuke would probably be none too impressed with her if she did not help out significantly in their mission.

"Woobie reporting in, spotted the beast, over"

Sakura beat down a small smile. It had been Sasuke that had talked through the transmitter and, despite the odd codename that he had deemed appropriate for himself, he was still pretty cool.

"What is your location?" Kakashi said over the transmitter.

"Woobie reporting in, you need to report in first, over."

"How about no."

"Woobie reporting in, Fluffy is down, over."

Sakura held in a giggle. Of all people, Sasuke seemed to really get into the idea of using the codenames. He acted differently from how he was back in the academy, but he did seem to be having more fun, and Sakura really did not mind; she sort of preferred him this way.

Naruto's ideas tended to be quite amusing.

Naruto had come up with the idea that they all use silly codenames over their transmitters. He had said that treating the mission like a spy movie would make it at least somewhat more fun for them. They all set to supplying themselves with names. After much consideration, Sasuke had chosen the codename 'Woobie', and had deemed Kakashi's codename to be 'Fluffy'. Kakashi had not wanted any part in it. Sakura had chosen the codename 'Cicada', because it was something simple. Naruto, though, had decided to be a bit more adventurous.

"Fluffy reporting in, Woobie is no longer being shouted lunch today, over."

"Woobie reporting in, awww, over."

"Incredible Dangerously Intelligent Outrageous Time-Traveller reporting in, spotted the beast, the spawn of hell, and am entering offensive mode, over."

Sakura grinned. It was the time that they had all been waiting for. Kakashi was oddly quiet, though. She had expected him to mention something when Naruto had said "entering offensive mode", but he seemed to either be pondering it, or did not notice it.

It was quiet for a moment, and then Kakashi suddenly called out over the transmitter.

"Naruto! You put that kunai down THIS instant!"

Sasuke gave an amused 'hn' from up in his tree, and Sakura wondered if it was simply because of the scuffle on the transmitter, or because he could see what was happening.

"Incredible Dangerously Intelligent Outrageous Time-Traveller reporting in, Fluffy has betrayed us! Requesting back-up! Over."

"Naruto, let go of the cat!"

Sakura finally allowed herself to laugh. She may have been unable to see what was going on, but she had a very good idea of it. Naruto really was something else. Codenaming himself 'I.D.I.O.T.T' should have probably been the biggest give-away there.

"Woobie reporting in," Sasuke said, and Sakura swore she could 'hear' the smirk on his lips. "Please continue, as this amuses me greatly, over."

2

Naruto had been a genius; his attempt to kill Tora had scored Team Seven with a ban from all missions involving animals for about a month. Sasuke and Sakura awed him, while Kakashi was just thankful that they had not been marked as failing the mission.

For the time being, they were to have missions in which nothing could be maimed or killed, and that included babysitting missions.

Oh, yes, Naruto was a hero.

However, he was a hero that missed out on a free lunch, and that tended to make him a little more irritable.

The three of them were on litter control, another boring D-rank mission that required no skill or general effort. They were given sacks and were sent off through the training areas to pick up all rubbish. After the training areas were the parks, and then it was the backstreets. They would return late at night to clean the market place, too. It was a long, boring mission.

Naruto grumbled as he moved further away from where Sasuke and Sakura were. They would be almost done most of the day areas if Kakashi had only allowed them to use jutsu. Another hundred or so shadow clones would have made quick work of all the cleaning, and then they would have the rest of the day off. Unfortunately, though, Kakashi seemed to enjoy seeing them 'suffering'. It was unusual just how much glee Kakashi seemed to get out of watching them perform manual labour, and it was a trait that Naruto seemed to forget the Kakashi from his time having. Strange.

Naruto moved into the forested area, following a trail of lolly wrappers. The side of his face twitched in annoyance, it was as though he was being led like some kind of prey. Still, the area needed to be cleaned, and it would all be on Kakashi's damn head if he was killed.

He continued to follow the trail until he reached a large pile of the wrappers. He grimaced, and set to picking them all up. Some idiot had gone for a walk, eaten lollies along the way, and dumped their rubbish as they went. They would have to take half a step before eating a new lolly, though, because that was how far apart the wrappers had been set from one another. Then there was the pile, the pot of gold at the end of the aluminium rainbow. The person must have found somewhere comfortable to sit while they devoured the rest of the sweets.

'_I hope they got a stomach-ache,'_ Naruto thought, quite unimpressed. _'Or, at least, have rotted out their teeth.'_

"Ah, I can't believe that worked! Pleased to see you again, Naruto-boy!"

Naruto gave a jump and stared around for the direction of the voice. He knew just who that voice belonged to, and he had been hoping not to come across them ever again. He ground his teeth as he thought about how he would probably need to teach him a lesson again.

"Ah? I'm up here!"

Naruto glared up into the tree, the one that was above the large pile of lolly wrappers. Sure enough, on a branch that was just out of his reach, Obito was sitting and swinging his legs back and forth like an impatient child. Naruto felt his anger rising, and he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Obito laughed childishly and pointed. "Your face is all red!"

"What the HELL do you want?" Naruto shouted at him. Somehow, Obito annoyed him even more when he acted like his Tobi cover.

"I would like to talk to you, this time without you attempting to blow me up," he said as he stood up. He finally sounded serious, but ruined it with a snort. "But that was pretty damn funny; I was like a cork in a bottle! Whoosh!" He performed the 'whoosh' motion with his hand.

Naruto took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Though the ideas on killing the man were awfully tantalising, he knew that he would currently be no match for him.

He might as well hear the masked-idiot out.

"I suppose that this is about the 'working together' bullshit, right?"

Obito nodded, and the serious tone re-entered his voice. "Yes, that's correct," he said. "I won't kill you, either, until our partnership is complete, so you can relax about that."

Naruto folded his arms. "About the 'not killing me' thing. . . This may sound strange coming from me, but you really should just kill me now. That way, I won't interfere with your future plans, plus I'm weak enough for you to squash me like a bug. Once I'm dead, you could enjoy your future of bloodshed and proceed to unleash your crazy upon the world."

" . . . I told you that both of us are stuck here, and that we have to both be together to return to our time."

". . ."

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose and screwed up his eyes. Apparently Obito was losing his hearing as well. He stared up at the man as though he was an idiot— a bigger idiot.

"Don't give me that weird look!" Obito called, pointing at Naruto. "I know that I could also kill you and then just wait until our time rolls around again, and I have considered this option plenty of times. However, I have decided that it would be much more beneficial to just call a temporary truce with you and work together. There are just some things that not even I could relive." He suddenly shuddered, and held his arms as though he was cold. "The things that I've seen. . ."

Naruto frowned. The man in front of him was certainly a strange one, and also was quite worrying. Obito had once giggled through one of Kakashi's tsukuyomi attacks as though he was being tickled, and yet there were things that seemed to scare him. Though Naruto wanted to know what horrors could traumatise an evil nutty ninja, he decided that it would probably be best to be quiet.

"S-so many . . . b-bunnies. . ."

Naruto's head snapped up. "What?"

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned around, having heard Sakura shout his name. With her were Sasuke and Kakashi. They stopped beside him, and Sakura grabbed hold of his ear.

"We've been looking for you," she said, sounding none too impressed. "It's time for us to move on to the next training area." She then glanced up and slowly let go of him. "Who. . . Who's that?"

"I am Tobi!" Obito called, waving both his arms about above his head.

Sasuke stared at the man quizzically, while Kakashi put up his guard. All the teachers heard about the mysterious masked man that tried to harm Konoha. Iruka had told pretty much everyone.

"Ignore him, and don't become friendly with him," Naruto warned, reaching into his kunai pouch. He took out one of the knives and held it in front of him. "This guy is really bad news."

"Bad news?" Sasuke repeated. "What? Evil, crazy, or bloodthirsty?"

"Yes."

Sasuke blinked. "He really doesn't seem that evil, strangely enough."

Obito laughed, and held his sides. "I am the bad guy! I am the villain! I am Naruto's partner!"

As if he was trying to emphasise the last point, Obito leapt down beside Naruto and pulled the boy into a headlock. He also confiscated the kunai while he was at it.

Kakashi's guard dropped a little. He was unable to sense any malice coming from the man. "Partners with a childish 'villain'?" He shook his head. "Why am I not surprised by this? So, how did an evil man— boy— like yourself become chummy buddies with my student?"

"We're not chummy buddies!" Naruto protested. "I hate the bastard! He-MPHH"

Obito shut Naruto up by shoving a few lollies in his mouth. He then released the boy, letting him choke on his own, and threw his arms up into the air.

"Naruto and I have to help each other get back to the future!"

Sasuke and Sakura both perked up at that piece of information.

"Oh, you're from the future too?" Sakura asked.

"Yep! But we're stuck in the past now! Naruto and I were fighting each other! Ka-ching with the ninja stars, swish with the shurikens and kunai, and ba-blam with the jutsu! But something went wrong and we were sucked into the past like soap bubbles down a sink's drain! Gurgle-gurgle!"

Naruto finally managed to swallow the lollies, no longer choking on them. "I hate you," he said.

Obito took a dramatic step back and placed his hands over his heart. "I am wounded!" he cried. "Naruto-boy, we need to fix up our differences and work together to return home! This time is no time for us!"

Kakashi inwardly groaned. _'Not another one,'_ he thought.

* * *

That was chapter six, and thank you for reading. Chapter seven should be uploaded back on the original schedule (Saturday for me, sometimes friday for some of you. Timezones.)

Thank you for reading.


	7. Going Against Nature

Well, I decided that it would be best to stick to my promise, and have been awaiting the big Tobi reveal. I checked out chapter 599 and was stunned, to say the least. I was actively hoping for Tobi to be someone else, and am still hoping that it's not _him_ mentally. If it is him 100% (minus the Zetsu goo, of course), then there goes several fics in progress. Darn.

I will be keeping my promise on changing Tobi's name (in this fic), but I will hold that off for a little while. I'll wait until we have more information to back this guy's identity. If he's not being used as a body and actually is there mentally, then I'll concede defeat and change everything to his name. If it's someone else mentally, then woo! I'll change it as soon as I find out.

For now, please be patient with me.

**Stated again, I dislike pairings, and so there won't actually be any happening within this story. There is no Iruka/Mizuki in this chapter. I am only a supporter of strong friendships.**

* * *

** Going Against Nature**

"_NARUTOOOOO!"_

Naruto quickly sat up, smacking his forehead straight into Sakura's own. The girl cursed and shrunk back, hand over her face, and Sasuke sniggered a little. Naruto ignored the two of them, not even bothering to question Sakura's close proximity to him while he had been sleeping, and opted for placing a hand over his heart. His heart was racing, beating quickly, and his face was cool with sweat. The front of his face was also damper than it should have been. Naruto touched his cheek, and pulled back when he realised that he had been crying.

Why had he been crying?

He thought back to the dream, if it could be called that. It felt too real, but he could not see anything, only hearing muffled voices. The only clear voice had been what he was positive to be older Sakura screaming for him, but out of worry or fear.

His heart finally started to calm down.

Had it been some kind of premonition?

Naruto glanced at the younger Sakura beside him. The girl was grumbling something, while gingerly touching the red mark where their foreheads had collided. She did not seem to be after Sasuke's sympathy, and, by the looks of it, she was not going to receive it. Sasuke seemed to have found the whole thing to be sort of funny, and the corners of his mouth were twitching in an attempt to form a smile.

Had that really been the older Sakura that he had heard? It certainly sounded like her, and it had sounded as though she had screamed from behind him. He could not remember hearing her screaming like that before he had been sucked back in time, though. It was strange, and he had no idea as to why his mind might have made the entire thing up.

It was disturbing, more than anything.

"Did you really have to sit up like that?" Sakura grumbled, and Naruto glanced at her. "You gave me a fright . . . and THAT hurt, you know. You have a pretty hard head."

"Huh? Sakura?"

The girl in question suddenly grew soft. "Hey, are you alright?"

Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Just a nightmare."

Sasuke folded his arms and watched Naruto get to his feet. Sakura also stood up tall.

"You'd barely been asleep for ten minutes, and you had a nightmare?"

Naruto shot him a small glare. "Yeah, so?"

Then Sasuke grinned.

Naruto and Sakura stared at the boy, blinking in silence. Eventually Sakura frowned and Naruto shuddered. They now knew why Sasuke did not smile too often; the boy looked weird. He looked as though he had just replaced someone's underwear with explosive tags, and not just as a prank. It was not mischievous, just creepy. The last person that Naruto could remember ever smiling similar to that was Gaara, before the boy was 'cured'. Even still, Sasuke seemed to have taken Gaara's grin and turned it up to eleven on the freaky scale.

"What are you three up to over her— Shit!" Kakashi jumped upon noticing Sasuke's face. "Sasuke, put that thing away before you hurt somebody."

Sakura whimpered, and Naruto moved away slowly.

Sasuke lost his grin and frowned.

"You guys suck."

1

They were bored, simply bored. The only missions that were available that day were ones that involved living creatures, and they were currently still banned from attempting those. Instead, they had to wait until one became available that had nothing to do with anything that breathes. Kakashi was sitting a short distance away, reading his book. Naruto and his team, though, were meant to be sparring with each other.

Of course, sparring became annoying when you had three types of people. There were the swift ones that could not be hit, the sturdy ones that could take almost all the damage without flinching, and there were those that thought it would be fun to pickpocket and bribe. Unfortunately, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were each one of these types.

So, instead of sparring, they all decided to lie down and stare at the sky. There were no clouds about, so they wondered if Shikamaru was also quite bored. Suddenly, Sasuke spoke up.

"What about a three-way spar?"

Naruto sat up and stared at the boy to his left, and Sakura rolled onto her stomach.

Naruto frowned. "It'd be a more harmful game of piggy-in-the-middle, that's what it would be. You'd hit me continuously, and Sakura would steal my stuff again.

Sakura giggled, and Naruto shot her a glare.

"Sakura, kleptomania is not a good thing on a ninja."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the very thought of it. Like Naruto, he seemed to find the thought of a kleptomaniac ninja quite unsettling.

Sakura stuck out her tongue. "Neither of you two are any fun," she grumbled, before rolling back to stare at the sky. Suddenly, she came up with another idea, and rolled back to her stomach again. "Hey, hey! Why don't we pretend to be each other for the day?"

"Hmm? Transformation?" Naruto asked, thinking back to the simple genjutsu.

Sakura shook her head. "No, like we'll pretend to be each other, but only by acting."

Sasuke rolled over and blinked. "I can see no way in which this carefully thought out plan could go wrong."

"Shut it, Sasuke," Naruto said, before considering Sakura's idea. A small grin found its way onto his face. "Sakura you are a beautiful and intelligent young woman."

Sakura huffed out of pride, lapping up the compliment. "It's about time that someone noticed that," she said, smirking.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Right, I'll pretend to be Sasuke, so that means that you should pretend to be me, Sakura."

"Too simple," Sakura said, flicking her hair. "Believe it."

Sasuke stood up. "That makes me Sakura, then?"

"Yes," Naruto said, trying to imitate Sasuke's general lack of enthusiasm for everything.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "I don't sound like _that_!"

Naruto stood and folded his arms as he stared away. "Hn."

Sakura laughed, and swung her arm around Naruto's shoulders. "Now, Sasuke-bastard, you should try to be much kinder to Sakura, believe it."

Naruto shoved Sakura off him. "Bug off, idiot! I don't have time for this."

Sakura huffed. "Idiot?! What crawled up your arse and died?!"

The two of them then burst out into laughter.

Sasuke rubbed his temples.

"The both of you are idiots."

Sakura looked shocked. "Sakura! That's unlike you!"

Naruto shook his head. "Hn, a personality upgrade, perhaps."

Sasuke twitched. "That's it; I'm going to pummel the both of you." He did not yell, but the desire was there.

"Young Sakura! You should try not to be so violent!" Sakura chastised, before grinning and looping their arms. "Maybe if you went on a date with me, you'd calm down."

Sasuke sighed. He was not playing along, but the two of them were treating it as though he was. Well, if they wanted him to play along. . .

Sasuke removed his arm, and grabbed onto Naruto defensively. "Go date someone else, Naruto-idiot! I have some business with Sasuke, here."

Naruto tried to pry the boy off him, not liking where this was going. "I'm not interested," he said. He was DEFINITELY not interested.

"B-but Sasuke, You and I need to stick together," Sasuke said, no emotion present in his voice.

Sakura charged up. "Sasuke! I challenge you to a spar for Sakura's love!"

Kakashi glanced over, unsure if he really wanted to know what was going on, or not.

"Should we swap personalities again?" Naruto asked.

Sakura thought for moment. "Sure," she said. "I'll be Sasuke, and, Naruto, you be me."

Naruto nodded, before holding together his hands. "Sasuke, I love you, please go on a date with me tomorrow night. . ."

Sakura glared at him "I have no time to waste on you! I must keep training and improving. Besides, I am busy tomorrow night."

"But why, Sasuke? What will you be doing tomorrow night that will make you too busy for a date?"

"The same thing that I do every night, Sakura, tend to my grand plans."

"Plans? Plans for what?"

"Plans . . . my grand plans to take over the WORLD!"

Sasuke glared at the both of them. They would never let him live the cartoon-thing down.

"My name is Naruto," Sasuke said in a serious tone, before spreading his arms out very stoically. "I love everybody."

2

Itachi shuddered.

"What's wrong with you?" Kisame asked, having noticed the very out of character motion from the normally very calm man.

Itachi shook his head. "Truthfully, I don't know," he said. "But I believe that I felt a terrible disturbance, the kind that waltzes right up to Nature and kicks it square in the balls."

Kisame blinked.

"Your prose and eloquence never ceases to amaze me, Itachi."

3

Mizuki glared at Iruka, thinking over the ways that he could kill the man. Of course, there were several hundred ways, but he wanted to search out the one that caused the most suffering. After all, his current suffering was all thanks to that idiot.

Iruka laughed nervously, slipping a few apologies in with every small chuckle. He knew that it was all his fault, and he knew that his good friend Mizuki would most probably be seething at him because of it. A quick glance at the man's face proved Iruka's guess to be correct. Damn.

"To be fair," Iruka said, still laughing nervously. "You need more friends."

Mizuki glared at the three jounin that Iruka had brought in with him. In truth, he did not mind Asuma or Kurenai at all, but the third one was different. . .

"Mizuki! You should be thanking your wonderful friend Iruka-boy for inviting us along!" Gai called, being enthusiastic as per usual.

Kurenai sighed. "You invited yourself along," she said, but was ignored again. She was getting used to not being listened to.

Mizuki sighed; he could not stay too angry at Iruka for long. Even if he was jealous of all the attention that Iruka tended to receive, the man was still a good friend to have.

That, and he was mostly just thankful that Anko had not decided to invite herself along.

"So, we should celebrate your soon-to-be release from hospital!" Gai called. Mizuki swore that the man had no inside voice, sometimes. "Congratulations on your healing!"

"I'm sorry, but he does mean well," Iruka said, in reference to Gai.

Mizuki snorted. "He's an idiot."

Iruka shook his head. "Only when Kakashi's involved. This is tolerable."

Mizuki stared at Iruka in disbelief, and he paled slightly. If Iruka referred to this as tolerable, then he did not want to see the man around his 'eternal rival'. Several scenarios ran through his head, each more frightening than the last. Mizuki whimpered.

"For this splendid party, I have brought along some drinks!" Gai announced, holding up what looked to be two wine bottles.

"M-Mr. Gai, you can't bring alcohol to the hospital!" Iruka fretted.

Gai gave the young man a quizzical look. "It's not alcohol, it's juice."

Asuma took one of the bottles from Gai and checked it, before nodding in confirmation. One was black-current, and the other was orange.

"Well, time to start celebrating, then," Gai said, removing the cork from one of the bottles.

4

Gai was forced to apologise profusely when the end of the 'party' came. Of course, everyone had been having a wonderful time, including Mizuki, but Gai had gotten a little too carried away. Mizuki had ended up falling out the window, and he was now sporting a broken arm and a bandaged face. The scowl he wore showed just how unimpressed he really was.

Gai, however, was distraught. He had never meant to hurt Mizuki; it had only been an accident. Now, Mizuki was angry with him, just as they had been becoming friends too. Gai was almost crying.

"I really am sorry," he wailed.

Mizuki twitched at the volume. He had always had a short temper, and he had always been brilliant at hiding it, but it was just too difficult to keep under wraps, at the moment. The one day that he was finally able to be released, and he was back inside again. He was seething.

"Please forgive him," Asuma said, apologetically. He had gotten a little carried away as well.

Kurenai and Asuma dragged the sobbing green man out of the room, just leaving Iruka and Mizuki.

Iruka sighed. "I'm really sorry, Mizuki."

Mizuki started to shake, and, for a moment, Iruka thought that the man was about to explode into a rage. Strangely, though, and unexpectedly, Mizuki just let out a small laugh.

It was strange, he had been angry just a few seconds before.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Mizuki said, as he calmed himself down. "I was so angry, and yet I wanted to laugh. Weird, huh?"

He started to laugh again, and Iruka soon also found himself joining in. They calmed down after about five minutes, and Mizuki smiled kindly.

"I did have fun, but I'm not impressed that my time here has been lengthened."

"I'm really sorry about that," Iruka apologised again. "You should be able to survive another day, though, right?"

Mizuki snorted. "Barely," he said, glaring out the window. "The food here is terrible; I'll probably die of food poisoning."

Iruka laughed. "At least you'll be well nourished, though."

"Yeah, well-nourished man dies of hospital food poisoning, that's how the headline would read."

The two men burst out into laughter once again.

"So, as you can see how my lucks been running, how's life been treating you?"

"Fairly good," Iruka said. "Don't have to deal with most of the old brats anymore, but some of the new ones are quite tough. It's difficult without your help, you know."

Mizuki smiled. "I heard only nine students passed completely, right?"

"Yeah, but all the well-behaved students came back to us for another six months, so it's nothing too terrible. Now, the brand new brats are what's bothering me."

"Iruka," Mizuki said, pausing soon after. He had lost most of the cheer to his voice and demeanour. "Naruto . . . passed, didn't he? He came in to see me a week ago."

"Hmm?" Iruka thought for a second, as though he had not heard the entire question completely. "He did graduate, yes. He scared off that masked man that I told you about. Apparently he's getting to be quite good, and he's actually getting along well with his teammates, which was unexpected. Why?"

Mizuki bit the inside of his cheek, and he stared down at his legs under the covers. "I hated him, you know. I wanted him to fail, I wanted to kill him." He stared up at the ceiling. "I wanted to try everything within my rights to fail him, even if that meant trying out something that also would not be so legal." Mizuki took in a deep breath. "I'm terrible, and I know that. The kid himself may not be too bad, but it's that _other_ thing that I can't overlook. I'm afraid of that kid, I'm afraid of what's inside of him, and I'm afraid of his capabilities.

"Somehow, I think that it would have been much better for that kid to lead a civilian life, instead of a ninja one. The monster is a temptress, and it would stop at nothing to get what it wants." He shuddered. "It wants revenge, Iruka, I know it. It will come back and wreck us all, and the kid will be its damned puppet.

"Naruto . . . he knows some things that he really should not know, are you aware of that? He seems to be able to predict a few things, and he claims it's because he's lived through all of this before. He said that I was meant to die, but he decided to change things a little bit to save me. I know that I should probably either thank him, or dismiss what he said entirely, but . . . but I just can't ignore that. I just am stuck here wondering if he knows because of the beast, or if he's pulling another stupid prank. It's nerve-wracking, Iruka."

Iruka frowned as he thought over what Mizuki had said. It seemed as though the man had put a great deal of thinking into it all, and it was scaring him. It scared Iruka too, especially hearing it from Mizuki's mouth. Mizuki was always brave and boisterous, so it was scary hearing him spill out everything and admit to being nervous.

Mizuki was scaring him.

"Iruka, we're friends, aren't we?" Mizuki asked, sounding a little unsure. He seemed so vulnerable. "I've been rude, cruel, and all round pig-headed, and yet you've stuck by me."

Iruka forced a small smile. "Of course we're friends," he said, trying to sound confident. His acting had always been a little shaky, but he really did mean what he said. "If you ever need me, I'll be right here to help you—" he sniggered "—except for when it comes to the hospital food; that's your own problem."

Mizuki stared at Iruka, first looking confused, and then he let out a long laugh. His face was flushed, either from embarrassment or adoration. He managed to beat down the laughter and give Iruka the most genuine smile that he could muster.

"You really mean a lot to me, Iruka," he said.

Iruka smiled, and joined Mizuki in laughing.

* * *

Every time that I try to write "eternal rival", I somehow manage to always write something different. It usually doesn't matter how similar in meaning or sound it is, I've had some strange ones.

To date, my favourite one would have to be one that sounds similar: "external rival".


	8. Ghosts

** With chapter 600 out, and Tobi confirming that he is who he is, names have now been changed.**

Song referenced is 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' from 'Hello, Dolly'.

**Warning: **Genre shift towards end of chapter, continuing into the next.

In unrelated news, I now have books 35 and 36. Asuma ;_;

* * *

** Ghosts**

When bored, it had been scientifically proven (by the best child scientists) that hanging upside down can alleviate those pesky symptoms, and stop boredom altogether. Of course, though, children were not very scientific, and the majority of adults would dismiss their findings immediately. Children, however, clung on to the words of these scientific kids. After all, what sane child could denounce such amazing scientifically proven studies such as bandaids heal all, and picking fresh dandelions would make you wet your bed?

But, what age was it when you stopped being a child?

Naruto often had to wonder it, as he thought that children stopped believing such 'discoveries' after they had turned about seven or eight. But, did that mean that they stopped being children then? Were twelve year olds still children? Were they still children if they were ninja?

He had to ask because Sasuke and Sakura, who had been very bored waiting for Kakashi, had taken to hanging upside down from the branches of a large, stable tree. Both their legs were hooked over the one side, giving the illusion that they were sitting upside down, and they were both frowning with folded arms. Naruto wondered if one was copying the other, or the blood rush to their heads made them do it.

Naruto was sure that he would never understand; he was really about seventeen, and not twelve.

"Master Kakashi . . . is late," Sakura announced, as though it was an amazing deduction.

Sasuke nodded twice. "He should invest in an alarm clock," he said, also as though he was a brilliant genius.

"Should we teach him a lesson?"

". . .Perhaps. . . We should consult the oracle first, though."

Sakura nodded, and stared down to Naruto. "Oi, what's up with Master Kakashi?"

Naruto glared at them. He was the 'oracle', apparently.

Sakura frowned. "I know you heard me, stop ignoring me!"

Naruto sighed. "I hate the both of them," he whispered under his breath. "Get down from the stupid tree, and I might just tell you!" he called.

Instantly, Sasuke and Sakura unhooked their legs and fell. Sasuke landed on his feet, and Sakura managed to somehow land on top of Sasuke. This sparked a small glaring match between the two, and Naruto was left to watch them, a groan caught in his throat. Whatever had happened to his teammates personalities, he hoped that it would not last long.

He cleared his throat and gained both attentions. "In the future, I had learnt that Master Kakashi is often late for one particular reason. Surprisingly, that reason is not sleeping in, nor is it the mighty challenger and eternal rival Maito Gai. No, the reason is because he's visiting an old friend," he explained, and coughed when he saw Sakura begin to raise her right hand. "Now, allow me to explain about this friend of his . . . he's dead."

He supposed that telling his friends about Obito's true status would not be a particularly intelligent move on his part. He would continue as though his claim rang true, otherwise the real Obito might actually kill him. Naruto enjoyed living, it was one of his favourite past-times, same with being in one piece.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but instantly clamped it back shut. Sasuke looked as though he had swallowed a bug.

Naruto loved how they clung onto his words like a pair of devoted followers; however, he was pretty sure that Sasuke was doing it more for show than actual belief. Still, it left him tingling all over. No one had ever listened to him like that back in his time, and that was what made this so special. He would try and sound brilliant and incredibly intelligent and wise while explaining things to them.

He loved the attention.

"This friend. . . I think his name was Obito. . . Ah, whatever, but he was one of your family members, Sasuke."

Sasuke blinked, as if questioning why any member of the Uchiha family would be daft enough to become friends with Kakashi.

"Obito died, and Kakashi spends all his time at the heroes' grave marker," Naruto explained. "He seems to love paying his respects to his old friend. . . Now, any questions?"

Sasuke was silent for a moment, before whispering to himself under his breath. "How the hell did they become friends?"

Naruto grinned. Ah, he had been correct.

Sakura frowned and folded her arms, striking a thinking pose. "Would you say that he seems depressed, then? Unable to let go?"

Naruto blinked. "Dunno," he said.

"Well, I guess that we could call his desire to stay there for as long as possible as a general clinginess to his old, dead friend," she said. "A reluctance to turn up to lessons is what we could also say."

Sasuke sighed. "So, what do you want us to do about it?"

"Well," Sakura began, "we want him to turn up to lessons, but he wants to spend more time with his friend. . . Why don't we get his dead friend to visit him and, thus, brighten up his day?"

Naruto and Sasuke stared at the girl. "Ha?"

Sakura grinned. "Think about it."

"I don't think that you realise this, but, although you used the word, you seem to have forgotten that this friend is dead," Sasuke said.

Sakura shot him a small glare. "I don't think that you realise this, but, although you revel in the fact, you seem to have forgotten that we're ninja," she said, mockingly.

Naruto shook his head. "No, Sakura, we can't bring back the dead; that's a forbidden jutsu." He shuddered. "And I'm pretty sure that we'd get into mountains of trouble for starting the first ninja-zombie apocalypse. . ."

Sasuke suddenly went thoughtful. "Any idea where this guy's body is located?" he asked.

"No, Sasuke, no," Naruto said in warning.

Sasuke grumbled something to himself before going quiet. Although Naruto had not heard it, he assumed that Sasuke had complained about Naruto being no fun, or something akin to that. Naruto sighed; he decided that he did not want to know why Sasuke wanted ninja-zombies in the first place. The boy had issues.

"You two. . ." Sakura grumbled, before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "Obviously you two have forgotten that there's a technique that allows us to transform— Lord knows how you forgot that, Naruto. All we need is patience, research, and acting."

Naruto blinked. "Oh! Transformation techniques were what you meant!"

"I'm surprised that you two managed to come to any other conclusions!" Sakura yelled at him. She cleared her throat. "We will ask about this Obito's personality, try and get as much information as possible. Obviously, we should try talking to people that are around the same age as Master Kakashi. We shall also gather with what we learn at Sasuke's place—"

"Why my place?"

"— and we will hunt for photographs there. Obito was part of the Uchiha family, so that's why."

Sasuke folded his arms. "I don't remember him," he grumbled.

"He died during the Third Great Ninja War," Naruto explained. "Of course you don't remember him."

Sasuke snorted. "I don't remember that war."

Naruto glared at the boy. "You weren't even alive then."

"I don't remember not being alive."

"Of course you don't remember not being alive—"

"Naruto!" Sakura called, effectively shutting the boy up. "Sasuke's just messing with you, now. Ignore him."

Naruto sighed. "Surely just one punch to the stomach would be reasonable."

Sakura shook her head. "No."

Sasuke smirked. "I don't remember Naruto ever being reasonable."

1

It was destined to be an endless day of running around and pestering adult jounin and older shopkeepers. Sakura was the one that moved about with the most vigour, seemingly overly excited in her team's "future project ". She was bright eyed, cheery, and could not sit still for too long. Any new piece of information that she managed to gather was instantly written down in a small notebook. Once she had learned enough about Obito from one person, she headed off in search for another.

Sasuke even remarked (amongst exhausted gasps for air) that the girl would do best perusing a career in journalism, but would fail at all attempts of ninja information gathering.

Naruto, and his bleeding nose, agreed.

Naruto and Sasuke were tired, and were unable to keep up with their female teammate. Although the two of them knew that they held more stamina than her, Sakura's burning passion for seeing her plan through carried her off on a wave of energy unlike any other. Naruto supposed that an equivalent would be to place a bowl of ramen as the prize for him, and, for Sasuke, a week to himself.

Sasuke groaned. "She's moving again," he said, and he glared over to Naruto. "I blame you."

"You can't blame me for _that_!" Naruto argued, motioning over to where Sakura had previously been. "It's her own idea, and she wants to see it through. Unfortunately for us, we've been dragged along." He absentmindedly rubbed his nose, and then flinched. He silently reminded himself to see a doctor about his nose, fearing that Sasuke might have broken it.

Sasuke saw Naruto flinching, and smirked. "Your fault for trying to attack me," he said.

Naruto glared at the boy. "You deserved to be attacked; I did not deserve to be hit."

"What kind of logic is that?" Sasuke asked, frowning. "I have every right to defend myself, and it's your fault for not being quick enough to dodge in the first place!" He folded his arms. "And I did not deserve to be attacked."

"You spouting that you didn't remember anything was perfect reason to be attacked!"

Sasuke shrugged. "That's all in the past now, we should both just forget about it." He smirked. "I don't remember even talking about it, now."

Naruto clenched his fists and glared at the boy. Several images of strangulation, maiming, and decapitation all flickered throughout his mind, but he knew that he could not do any of it. Sasuke, the little shit, was much too fast and was bloody difficult to catch. Naruto knew that he would have to work on his speed training.

Eventually, the boys caught up with Sakura, just in time to see her shoo away another information-drained adult, and she turned to them with the biggest grin on her face. Naruto instantly decided that he did not like that grin, and Sasuke probably thought that same thing.

"We're going to weasel some information out of Lord Hokage."

"Those files are all confidential," Naruto explained. He knew that he would not like that smile.

"What files? We're going to just talk to Lord Hokage. He ought to remember what Obito was like."

The two boys glanced at each other, sighed, and then reluctantly followed behind. The girl laughed a little, and broke into a half-skip half-run. Naruto and Sasuke kept their dawdling pace.

2

"Obito?" Sarutobi repeated, before growing quiet. "Hmm, that's Kakashi's old teammate, wasn't it?" He shook his head. "Why do you three want to know about him?"

"Oh, just for research purposes," Sakura said, smiling sweetly.

The third hokage frowned and folded his arms. "Intimate information on a previous serving ninja is confidential, so, depending on what you want to know about him, I may or may not be able to tell you what you want," he said.

Naruto and Sasuke warily glanced to each other, and Sakura beamed. She could handle this, she could handle anything. She was not a genius child for nothing.

"We only want to know what he was like, you know?" she said, grinning. "His personality, basically."

Sarutobi lifted a quizzical eyebrow. "And why such an interest in how he behaved?"

Sakura turned, grabbed Sasuke's sleeve, and pulled the boy closer to her, almost into a hug. She stared at the hokage with watery eyes, and squeezed the young boy harder.

"Sasuke, here, only wants to learn about people from his family that he was never able to properly meet," she lied. "He feels an empty space in himself, deep down, and this is his only way to try and fill it, right Sasu-baby?"

Sasuke looked slightly offended. "What are you—" Sakura stamped hard down onto his foot. "Argh! I-I mean, yes, there is a hole there. A large, gaping painful hole. It makes me cry to myself at times." He showed next to no emotion while speaking.

Sakura grinned and nodded at Sasuke, before grinning back at Sarutobi. "See?! He's so empty and sad! Please, Lord Hokage, he really must know. Just learning about Obito's personality would be enough to fill in a small portion of that gaping chasm of a hole, and you wouldn't want to leave a poor, sweet, innocent child, such as Sasuke, go away feeling sad, empty, and incomplete, would you?" She covered her eyes with her arm and sniffled. "That would be much too cruel!"

"Sniff, sniff," Sasuke said.

Sarutobi stared at the two in front of him, unsure of what to make of what he had just seen of their act— if it could be called that, that is. Sakura certainly seemed into the entire thing, but Sasuke was just so unenthusiastic. The boy was so unenthusiastic that it was making him sad.

He sighed; there was no real harm in just telling them a little, he guessed.

"Obito was a fun character," he explained, pausing to briefly watch Sakura let go of Sasuke and grin with wide eyes. "He would often apologise for being late, and would come up with silly excuses, often to the point of driving the people around him mad. He was very cheery, and very well natured, but he did fight with Kakashi a little." He coughed. "Does that help?"

Sakura blinked, lost her grin for a moment, and then began to smile wider than before. "Yes, yes it does!" she said, happily. "I feel that Sasuke is quite happy with that information!"

"Wow, I am so happy," Sasuke said, sounding nothing of the sort. "I can feel that hole filling up a little, possibly with happy things. I might go and eat sweet things as a reward for feeling so happy. Thank you, Lord Hokage."

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, Yes! Thank you ever so much! Look at how _happy he is! We should go and celebrate!" She dragged Sasuke over to the door, and Naruto followed. "Thank you again, Lord Hokage! You have no idea of all the good that you have done today!"_

The three children then left, Naruto shaking his head and sighing before he shut the door behind him.

Sarutobi leaned back into his chair and stared up at the ceiling.

For some reason, those three left him feeling very, very uncomfortable.

3

Iruka whistled a small tune to himself while he picked up a few groceries from the markets. He gathered plenty of fruit, plenty of vegetables, and a little bit of meat, mostly imported fish like snapper. He liked snapper.

He would wave occasionally at the people he knew, and would even stop for a small chat with the ones that he was especially friendly with. All in all, it was a really good day. He even planned to stop by Mizuki's place a little later and have a few drinks with the man. He grinned; Mizuki was really starting to cheer up again, which was good. That hospital incident had worried him, but it was not brought up again. Afterwards, Mizuki's attitude had continued to improve, and Iruka had even caught the man conversing quite happily with Naruto on occasion. Sure, Mizuki feared the fox, but who did not? Everyone feared it, even Iruka admitted that it scared him, but it was good to see that Mizuki was starting to separate Naruto from the fox.

Mizuki's overall change in attitude, and hard work into changing his views on Naruto for the better, were certainly worth celebration.

That, and Iruka just enjoyed spending time with friends.

"Heh, I wonder if we should go out and talk to some girls, then," he said to himself, before blushing and grinning.

Yes, he quite liked that idea.

Iruka whistled a little more, before singing little.

"We'll see the shows at Delmonicos, and we'll close the town in a whirl. . . And we won't come home until we've kissed a girl!"

He gave a small skip in his step, and resumed whistling.

4

Naruto watched Sakura pace back and forth while she looked over a few notes that she had made. He gave a yawn and scratched his head, while wondering what the girl was contemplating. The best information that they had managed to gather on Obito was, in fact, just that small snippet from the hokage, and Naruto wondered exactly what Sakura was going to do with it. Speaking about that time with the hokage, Naruto was shocked that what Sakura had tried had even worked. How it had worked was beyond him, especially with Sasuke's acting, or lack-thereof.

He glanced over to Sasuke, who was intently watching a fly, and watched him for a little while. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and boredly followed the fly's movements for a little bit, weaving his arm with it. The kunai was ready to be thrown, and Naruto briefly wondered if Sasuke would be able to hit the insect if he did throw the knife. Sasuke, however, did not throw the weapon, and he only continued to follow the fly.

"Okay!" Sakura called, instantly gaining the attentions of both boys. "I've thought it over a fair bit, and I have come to the only possible way that we'll be able to pull this trick off." She seemed to pause for dramatic effect, but her growing grin only spoiled it. "Considering Sasuke's less than amazing acting skills, we may have to have you, Naruto, transform into Obito."

Naruto grimaced. "Why me?" he asked. "Why not you? You're better at acting."

"Because," Sakura began, "I am too wonderful to play the role of a boy. Honestly, Naruto, I'd thought that you'd know that."

"You're about as feminine as a guy," Naruto grumbled under his breath.

Sasuke remained silent.

Sakura sent Naruto a dangerous glare. "I said 'wonderful', not 'feminine'," she said in a growl. "And, besides, I'm plenty feminine, thank you very much!"

This time, Sasuke let out a quiet snort. Naruto supposed that it was meant to replace laughter. After all, he knew that he would laugh, but, unlike Sasuke, he would get into trouble.

Sakura cleared her throat. "Anyway, Naruto, this should be easy for you given that you won't actually have to act at all."

Naruto scowled. "Hey. . ."

Sasuke snorted again.

They were all sitting in Sasuke's house, talking over tea. Naruto was sitting casually at a small coffee table, Sasuke was sitting further to the back on a sofa, and Sakura was standing at the front, leaning on a kitchen bench. The house was very large, and very cold, but it was not such a bad place to be. It was very clean and comfortable.

Sasuke had also been kind enough to serve tea.

"Okay, Sasuke," Sakura said, after taking a sip of her drink. "Did you manage to find the pictures of Obito?"

Sasuke nodded slowly, and he placed a photo frame down on the coffee table. Naruto and Sakura moved closer to have a look. The boy in the picture was grinning, and he was holding out a forehead protector, probably showing off the fact that he had just made genin.

Naruto almost had to do a double-take. He had a very hard time believing that the cheerful looking child was the same person as that nutty masked man. He briefly wondered if Obito had been much saner, back then, too. Still, he supposed that he could probably try and use this as some form of blackmail later.

"I found it in a trunk," Sasuke explained. "It was like going through some kind of treasure chest, and was even better because it does and doesn't belong to me." He thought for a moment. "I also found rainbow striped socks. They were quite fancy."

". . .Uh-huh. . ." Naruto said, raising both eyebrows.

"Yes," Sasuke said. "I also found some tea bags. It was a good thing too because I was all out of tea."

Slowly Naruto and Sakura glanced to their cups, glanced back to Sasuke, and both pushed the cups away from them.

"That's. . . nice," Sakura said, having taken a short moment to think of the correct word.

Sasuke nodded, and then took another sip of his tea.

Sakura slowly glanced away from Sasuke again, before taking in a deep breath and clapping her hands together. "Well, how about you practice transforming into Obito, Naruto?"

Naruto slowly pulled his eyes away from Sasuke. "Umm, yeah, good idea," he said. "I'll probably take the rest of the afternoon to practice it, too. Need to get it perfect," he said. _'And to make sure that I don't somehow blow myself up, or something. If I've learnt anything, it's that I still need to practice.'_

Sasuke finished his tea and nodded again. "That's a good idea," he said. "Practice makes perfect. You may stay here, too."

"Oh, that's so kind of you, Sasuke—"

"And I'll make you both more tea whenever you feel like it," he finished, cutting Sakura off. "After all, I now have plenty of tea."

Sakura gave a nervous laugh. "T-that's quite alright, Sasuke," she said, while watching Naruto turn quite green. "I think that we'll be fine, as far as drinks go, anyway."

Naruto eyed his cup. Was the tea even safe to drink? Perhaps Sasuke was trying to poison them.

5

A few hours later, Naruto had the transformation right under his belt. He had practiced walking around as a young Obito, behaving like Obito (which was not much different to behaving normally, though he did not really want to admit that he and the man had anything in common), and had even made sure to leave a black hole where Obito's left eye was supposed to be.

Sakura looked at him disdainfully.

"What? It's for added effect!" Naruto argued.

"So, when do we do this?" Sasuke asked, starting on his fourth cup of tea. He placed new cups down for Naruto and Sakura too, despite their insistences that they were fine without tea.

Naruto pulled a face, and pushed his new steaming drink away from him. Sakura grimaced and did the same. How Sasuke could happily drink such old tea was completely beyond them.

"We'll head out tomorrow morning," Sakura explained, "an hour before we are to meet Master Kakashi at the training grounds. If what Naruto says is true, we should be able to meet and surprise him at the memorial stone."

Naruto grinned. "He'll be so surprised, alright," he said adding a chuckle onto the end.

Sasuke nodded, "We'll see him tomorrow, then," he said. "I'm looking forward to it." Half a smirk formed on the boy's face.

Sasuke, unlike Naruto and Sakura, had a better idea of what the actual outcome might be, and he liked that result much better than the one the other two had in mind.

It was a lesser known fact that Sasuke did take a fair amount of glee with messing with people.

He also especially loved that his two stupid teammates bought the 'tea' lie.

Stupid teammates, Sasuke had bought that tea just a little over a week ago.

"So, who wants another brew?"

6

Early the next morning, about an hour and a half before Team 7 was meant to meet up, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all stood together just out the front of Sasuke's home. They talked, in the crisp air about how they were going to go about everything again. They went over every small detail, and Naruto even practiced the transformation a few more times, just to be sure that they were ready.

They were, and none of them could wait.

They hurried over to where the memorial stone was and stared about from a short distance away. Kakashi certainly was there, and he was staring at the stone. Sakura remarked that the man looked about ready to cry, and Naruto assured her that it was all the more reason to go ahead with their plan. Sasuke even backed him up on it, which Naruto had found to be very surprising. Sakura had, then, agreed to go through with it.

Naruto transformed into Obito, and began to wander over toward Kakashi. Sasuke and Sakura kept hidden, but crept closer to observe the outcome. Sasuke almost started to shake in anticipation, but he managed to calm himself down a little bit.

Now, everything was up to Naruto.

Kakashi sighed again as he stared at the memorial stone. No matter how hard he tried to think of the good times, he could only remember how he had let Obito down, and continually reminded himself that it was his fault that his friend was dead. His guilt grew and grew with every minute, and he felt heavier and heavier with each passing second. He briefly wondered if he would be able to force himself away from the stone today, just like the other days, or if he would be stuck standing there, staring, hating, for all eternity.

"I had been so foolish," he whispered, feeling the need to remind himself of that too. "Oh, god, I'm so sorry Obito."

"Mornin' Kakashi!"

Kakashi glanced over in the direction of the cheerful voice, partially feeling as though he should probably tell the new-comer that the morning really was not very good at all, but his voice caught in his throat, and his train of thought broke down in his mind.

Standing barely a few metres away from him was his dead teammate, as young as the day that he had died.

Kakashi's mind suddenly ran wild, and ignored all rational thought. How was Obito standing there? Why was Obito alive? Had Obito always been alive? Were they still kids? Why was Obito there? Where were they? When where they? Who was Obito? Who was Kakashi? Who was anyone? What was real?

Naruto/Obito grinned and scratched his forehead. "Sorry I'm late Kakashi, but I had to—"

"I don't know anymore!" Kakashi suddenly shouted, before collapsing.

A few minutes passed, before Naruto dropped the transformation, and his two teammates wandered over to check on their teacher. They poked and prodded their teacher a little, and even called his name, but to no avail. Kakashi seemed to be out cold.

". . . Oh, god, he's not. . ._dead_, is he?" Naruto asked, worriedly.

Sakura shook her head. "No, I don't think so. He seems to still be breathing."

"He just fainted, it seems," Sasuke said, poking Kakashi's face once more with a stick.

They were quiet for a few more minutes, before Naruto spoke up again.

"He. . . He was just so happy that he fainted on the spot. I. . . I think that we may have done good today guys."

Sakura frowned. "I didn't know that it was possible to faint due to happiness," she confessed. "And didn't he seem more confused than happy?"

"It has to be, because I swear he just did that," Naruto said. "Faint from happiness, I mean."

Sasuke, who had been quietly thinking it over, put down his poking stick and decided to give his opinion on the matter.

"He must have been so depressed that the sudden bout of extreme happiness over seeing his old friend overloaded him, confused him, caused him to short-circuit, and then resulted in him fainting."

"You really think so, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, sounding a little unsure.

Sasuke gave a curt nod. "I'm positive."

Naruto thought it over. "Yeah, I'll actually go with Sasuke on this one," he said.

The three of them backed away from Kakashi, and turned to leave. They had done "good" today, and it made them feel awesome. Sasuke, however, found the situation awesome in a completely different way to his teammates, not that he would ever tell them, that was.

"So, who's up for some tea, then?"

Meanwhile, the ghost of young Obito, the one that Kakashi had subconsciously created a very long time ago, was sniggering and elbowing the unconscious man.

"Kakashi, man oh man, I so wished that I lived to become your team's instructor! Oh man, we'd all get along perfectly!"

Kakashi twitched.

7

Obito, the real Obito, wandered around in an area of complete nothingness. A white, spacious, pocket-dimension that he had created for himself so that he could get some thinking done in peace. Oh, and a vacation, yes, he needed a vacation.

Obito continued to wander, listening to the echo that each footstep created while he thought. A short while back, he had felt some kind of disturbance, though he was not sure as to what it was. He had instantly gone to check on Naruto, but the boy and his friends were not the culprits. Although, it did amuse him to watch Naruto parade around as his younger, less 'awesome' self. Obito decided that he did not want nor need to know what the children were doing, so he had returned to the place that he so affectionately nicknamed his "control room". "Relaxation room" had also been considered when thinking of names, but "control" made it sound better.

Whatever the disturbance had been, it seemed to be harmless for the most part. He had worried that it could have been some kind of "glitch", but that appeared to not be the case.

Just when he was going to write it off as something of little concern, he felt the same disturbance ripple again. He froze, thinking it over. It was the same thing, but this time it had done something. This time, whatever it was had messed with something, and certainly not for the better.

"Something's not right," Obito said, before teleporting himself away.

8

Iruka stood, staring in absolute horror at what he saw. The bag of alcohol that he had been carrying was let go of, and it hit the ground with an odd thump.

He had been planning a wonderful evening with his friend, but there really was no point now.

Mizuki was hanging by some rope to the ceiling rafter.

* * *

This genre change continues into chapter nine. Chapter ten is back to normal, though, and is also the start of wave arc.

Lastly, because I have gone seven chapters without, here's to requesting concrit. I am not an amazing writer, but I am looking to improve. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.


	9. World's Best Friends

So, the genre shift is continuing in this chapter, but it is not continuing into chapter ten.

Also, to answer a question, Naruto cannot feel the disturbances.

I am also begging for criticism. Please, I want to improve, and my lack of skill is rather disturbing for me.

**Warning:** Genre shift continued in this chapter.

* * *

** World's Best Friends**

It was surprisingly sunny when Mizuki's funeral was held. A little overcast in the morning, but everything cleared up by noon, leaving a few grievers to feel both angry at, and thankful for the weather. Angry because it seemed too sunny of a day to be the day of a funeral, and thankful for a sweet day to help leave them with sweet reminders of the man that they were mourning for.

Iruka stood up the front, smartly dressed, and stern faced. He was trying his hardest to not cry, but was sure that he would not be able to help himself once he was out of public view. He bit the inside of his cheek, and forcibly held back a strong sob that threatened to escape him.

It was hard, very hard. Everything was hard.

Mizuki had been his friend, his good friend, his woman-chasing partner, his drinking mate, his assistant teacher. He had been showing many good signs of improvement in mind and character since the breakdown in the hospital, but now this happened.

Iruka could not understand why Mizuki had done as he had done, and Iruka hated Mizuki for doing it.

'_You were supposed to be getting better! You were supposed to be well, you bastard! You disgusting, cowardly bastard!'_ he thought, as he clenched his fists.

He hated Mizuki, but he missed him so much.

He hated him because he had taken the cowardly way out, and with no warnings.

Iruka's body shook harshly, and his eyes prickled with tears, but he fought them back, and he bit hard down on his lower lip.

No more drinking with him, no more girl-chasing with him, no more joking, no more teaching, no more arguing. . .

. . . Nothing.

The funeral procession ended, and a few people began to converse.

'_How dare they chat,'_ Iruka thought, his knees shaking like jelly. _'How dare they think of anything else.'_ His stomach churned. _'How dare they show anything but the utmost respect.'_ His head spun. _'But, most of all, how dare you leave us, Mizuki.'_

Iruka slowly turned and walked away stiffly. He had to move and get away. There were bad things there, many terrible things, and he had to get to safety. Safety was his apartment, a private place in which he could bawl like a child.

He sniffed. What an idiot he was, men never cried.

He sniffed again, and wiped the water from his eyes.

He was a terrible excuse for a man, anyway.

Iruka returned home, and let out everything.

1

Naruto stood still, unable to believe what had just happened. Mizuki, the man that he had tried to save and finally seemed to get along with, committed suicide. The reason why, though, was something that continually escaped him. Everything seemed to have been going fine, and then, out of the blue, Mizuki was gone.

The worst part of it was, though, how little he cared for the man in comparison to how much he cared about his failure. They could have replaced Mizuki with a rabbit, and Naruto's response would have likely been the same. It was only his own success that mattered, and not how the people involved felt about it.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura asked, sounding worried.

Naruto shook his head, and he stared away.

Still, he tried to save Mizuki, tried to save him to be nice to the man, but he failed. He wanted to befriend Mizuki, he really had, but he had not been able to do so just yet and would now not ever get the chance. He had changed Mizuki's reason, but had not changed the man's fate.

Why?

That could not have been right at all. There was no exact, there was no be-all and end-all, and everyone's fates should be able to be changed.

But why?

Why? Why? Why? Why?

It was not fair. He tried, he really tried, and yet this happened.

Did that mean that other fates could not be changed as well? Would they even want their fates to be changed if they, as the dead and the lost, were asked?

What about the Third's death? Would he be able to prevent that, only to change the cause behind it? What about Asuma? What about Jiraiya? What about Sasuke's betrayal?

No, he had to prevent all of it, their wishes be damned. He knew that it all happened in his time, but he was hoping to prevent it all in this time. What would be the point if he could not change anything?

Naruto let out a small, sad chuckle. "That's right, there is no point," he said. He ignored Sakura's concerned look.

He had no choice to begin with; there was no point to any of this. Obito messed up, and they both ended up in the past. He had not travelled back to perform some amazing deed, and to save everybody.

No, he came back by accident, and his main priority was to get back to his own time.

Nothing else mattered; he only had to return home.

There was no point in wanting to stay in the past when he could not change anything.

No, there was no point at all.

"Nothing can be changed."

"Unless you really, really, _really_ try, that is," a familiar voice said.

Naruto gave a small jump, and stared at the masked man that stood beside him. Obito had managed to sneak up on him and get very close, and Naruto had not noticed at all, only furthering to remind and irritate Naruto over just how weak he had become yet again. The man was behaving and speaking more childish because Sakura and Sasuke were both present. He seemed to have something against behaving seriously when there were people other than Naruto around. It was an annoying habit that Naruto could not wait to be broken.

Naruto turned away.

"Come on," Obito said, walking around to stand in front of Naruto again. "I saw the funeral, I know what you're upset about, but you need to realise that not everything is as easily changed as snapping your fingers and whishing on it! Change requires plenty of work!"

Though, he did not bring up that it would have been that easy, if not for whatever the disturbance had been. He was still investigating.

"Shut up!" Naruto snapped, and swiftly pulled a kunai out of his weapon pouch. He charged forward and slashed at Obito's middle with the weapon, but the man dodged easily with barely a side-step and he lightly tapped the back of the boy's head.

Naruto roared in anger, spun around, and swung his leg in for at kick at the man's side. Obito stepped backwards, leant forward, and lightly tapped the leg down. Naruto attempted throwing several shuriken, but Obito only continued to weave around them and around Naruto. Once behind the boy, Obito tapped him on the back of the head once more.

Sasuke and Sakura stared in amazement at Obito's swift and fluid movements, both impressed with the man that was very obviously only playing with their teammate. He was strong, they deduced, incredibly so, but was not inflicting any harm other than infuriating and exhausting the blond boy.

"I can't change anything. . ." Naruto said, dropping his attacking stance. It was no use attacking a man that would just dance around all of his attacks. "I couldn't change. . ."

"You've already changed some things," Obito said, causing Naruto to glance over to him. "Already, you've changed a few people's opinions of you for the better right?"

Naruto blinked, and then glanced over to both Sasuke and Sakura. Obito was right, he had managed to change their opinions of him, and he changed how they behaved a little too.

Though, Naruto did wonder where he went wrong with Sasuke, and regretted it a little.

"B-but. . ." Naruto began, staring over to the ground again.

It seemed to strike some type of chord with Sasuke, and the boy puffed out his chest and glared. "Right," he said, stomping over to Naruto.

Sakura was quite shocked. She had certainly never seen her crush stomp before. Nor had she ever seen him puff out his chest like that. He almost looked like a gorilla.

Strangely, she found that she liked it.

Naruto was obviously also a little caught off guard too. Two things that he had also never expected Sasuke to do had just been done.

Sasuke punched Naruto in the face, and the shocked boy fell back two steps. Sasuke glared at him, and he crossed his arms.

"Be cheerful!" he ordered.

". . . Ha?" Obito said, slouching forward in disbelief.

Naruto glared at Sasuke, and moved forward to try and punch the boy back, but Sasuke was too quick for him, so he only wound up swiping at air. Sasuke turned landed a kick to Naruto's side, and the blond boy stumbled again.

"Stop being sad!" he ordered.

Naruto growled and flung himself at Sasuke, weapon at the ready. Sasuke dodged most of his swipes and punches, and the ones that the black-haired boy could not dodge, he expertly blocked. Sasuke showed little difficulty in preventing Naruto from landing a single hit on him, and it only angered the blond more.

Sakura watched on in mild interest.

Obito was a little more than confused. "Is this. . . What is. . . Huh?"

Sasuke glanced over to the man, having forgotten for a moment that he was there.

That was Sasuke's main mistake.

Sasuke was rammed to the ground with a head-butt, and Naruto dove on top of him, punching, kicking, scratching, biting, and anything else that worked, really.

The two boys ended up scuffling about on the ground, growling at each other, and even pulling hair.

Sakura glared. "You two!" she shouted, before she stormed over and started to kick at the boys.

Sasuke grabbed a hold of the pesky, interfering leg and pulled hard. Sakura gave a small scream before she was pulled into the dirt to scuffle with the boys. She then degenerated to their level, and helped build the three-way fight with as much scratching and hair-pulling as she was capable of doing.

Obito was left standing there, just staring.

"I have no idea what's going on," he admitted, dropping his childish cover for a moment.

He stepped closer to get a better look at the pathetic scuffle.

That was Obito's mistake.

Suddenly, one of the kids took a firm grip of his leg, and attacked that. Obito soon found himself also in the scuffle, scratching, kicking, hair-pulling, and being all-round pathetic, really.

Kakashi wandered over to see what was going on, but he was the only one of the five with the common sense to stay out of reach. He watched probably the saddest fight on record continue for another five or so minutes, before the four on the ground were left exhausted and panting.

It was then (and only then) that Kakashi decided to get closer.

He peered down at the group that was covered in dirt and grass.

"Are we quite done?" he asked.

Naruto glanced over to Sasuke and spied a lovely black bruise that was forming on the boy's face. He then nodded and returned his attention back to Kakashi.

"Yes, we're done," he confessed.

Kakashi smiled. "Good," he said.

2

Iruka had not wanted to answer his door, but he did anyway, and he certainly did not want to let a group of jounin into his home, but he had no choice there, and, lastly, he had vehemently protested being kidnapped and taken out to drinks and karaoke, but no one listened.

Iruka was stuck in a small and stuffy room with four people that he did not want to see for a while. Unfortunately, these other people had plans contrary to Iruka's own, and one chuunin was certainly not enough to take on four seasoned jounin.

Iruka sat there, staring down at the drink that he had been given. He ignored most of what was being said to him.

"Brat just won't cheer the hell up," Anko said, yawning.

"Well, Mizuki was his good friend," Kurenai explained. "It only makes sense that he's very upset by it."

Anko stared at the woman quizzically. "So?" she said. "I have people that I know die all the time, and I could care less!"

Kurenai sighed and shook her head.

Asuma decided to speak up. "You're Anko, and he's Iruka."

Anko blinked, even more confused. "Point?"

"He's human, and you're not," Asuma explained, and was abruptly hit on the head by the very woman that he was talking to.

"I'm human too, you good for nothing chain-smoker!" she shouted.

Asuma glanced over to Kurenai, face showing that he was asking for help, but Kurenai only shook her head. Anko certainly was Anko, and there were times when explaining things to her were useless.

Iruka glanced over to the others for a short moment, before shifting his eyes away again. They were his friends, they were normally fun to be around with, and they obviously cared about him enough to be trying to cheer him up as they were, but Iruka was not in the mood.

Gai sang loudly into the provided microphone, and he also danced along enthusiastically. Although bad, his singing was much better than Asuma's and Kurenai's combined. He could not beat Anko, though, and Iruka had suspicions that that woman won purely on her own charisma, rather than her skill.

She just was that way.

Speaking of Anko, the woman had obviously had enough of Gai's singing, and she was fighting over ownership of the microphone with him. Their scuffling and shouting at each other had strangely brought a half smile to Iruka's face.

They were his friends, and he loved them dearly.

"Hey, Iruka," Kurenai said in a hushed tone. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," he answered, truthfully. "But not as shitty as before."

"That's good," the woman said, smiling gently. "Now if only we could get you to feel less like shit, and more like poop."

Asuma suddenly sniggered. "Kurenai made a funny," he said, giggling childishly.

Iruka suddenly found himself smiling at that too. Somehow, as silly as it was, it had been funny.

Kurenai continued. "Gai decided on this, you know? He hates seeing people look down, so he tries his hardest to cheer them up. He's not very good at it, though."

They watched as Anko victoriously wrenched the microphone out of Gai's hands, and watched the man protest.

"He's an idiot," Iruka admitted. "But he's a fun idiot. He's a good friend." He smiled at Kurenai. "You're all good friends, and I'm really lucky to have you all. . ."

Tears began streaming from Iruka's face, and no amount of force could hold them back. Kurenai patted the man's back gently.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," she whispered. "It's okay to cry, it's okay."

Asuma, who was watching the entire thing, moved over to sit beside Gai.

"He's at brussels-sprouts level," he said.

"Brussels-sprouts level?" Gai repeated, confused. "What's that?"

"The level just right beneath poop."

". . . What?"

* * *

Sprouts? I hate sprouts.

Silverbeet is delicious, though.


	10. Chapter 10

Before heading out to set off to Hokage Tower, Naruto checked his calendar over and over. Previously, when he had first realised (and come to accept) that he was stuck in the past, Naruto had marked on his calendar all of the dates that he remembered to have some significance. Of course, he could not remember dates one-hundred percent, but he was pretty damn sure that his (educated) guesses were scarily near accurate.

Now, Naruto was staring at the date that read "Irritate Old Fart Hokage, demand better missions, guard bridge builder!", and he was shaking with excitement all over. Perhaps, this time, his attempt to change someone's fate would actually work.

It was Haku that he was thinking about, of course.

He really had to change Haku's fate.

Naruto stretched, and exited his apartment. He was excited, worried, and overly determined to make everything work out this time. He nodded to himself, before heading off to meet with his teammates and, eventually, Master Kakashi.

Sasuke and Sakura were easy to find; they were already waiting outside the tower. Naruto waved and ran over to them. Only Sakura waved back. Sasuke glanced over, and then went back to staring at the fence that was a short way off. Both Sasuke and Sakura looked a little tired, but, otherwise, were red-cheeked and alert.

"So, why so cheerful today, Naruto?" Sakura asked, as soon as Naruto had joined them.

"If I remember correctly," Naruto began, grinning. "Today, we might be given a real mission."

Sakura's face brightened, and Sasuke glanced over, interested.

"A. . . A _real_ mission?" Sakura asked, and squealed when Naruto nodded his head. "Oh wow! This. . . This is so amazing! So exciting! Oh! Oh! Sasuke, can you believe it?!" she tugged on Sasuke's arm.

"No, not really," Sasuke answered, truthfully. "I'd like it to be true, though."

Sakura hopped on the spot excitedly, and even grabbed Naruto's hands, forcing him to hop with her. Sasuke watched the two of them, somewhat amused. Sakura, then, grabbed one of Sasuke's free arms, and Naruto grabbed the other, and all three of them bounced. Well, Sakura and Naruto bounced; Sasuke just stood still and allowed them to lift his arms. He did not seem_ too_ annoyed, though.

"This is so cool!" Sakura squealed.

"Isn't it? Isn't it?!" Naruto called back.

"Yay," Sasuke said in deadpan.

"So, is there anything specific that we have to do?" Sakura asked, once most of the excitement wore down.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah," he said. "We have to refuse the lower ranked missions, and we have to show just how mature that we are."

Sasuke eyed Naruto warily. "I don't know," he said. "That might be a little hard for you."

Naruto stopped grinning and shot the boy a glare. Sasuke only half-smirked back, and gave a small shrug. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"I AM the mature one here," he growled. "I'm seventeen; you're not."

Sasuke scoffed. "You're rather short for a seventeen year old," he stated. "In the future, is there some kind of midget uprising? Or are short ninja a thing, like a trend?" He stared away, his nose in the air. "I think I'd kill myself if I was seventeen and was as short as you."

Naruto growled and formed a fist. He was really going to let the brat have it this time. By the time that he would be done with the boy, Sasuke would be eating through a straw for a month.

Unfortunately, though, before Naruto was going to unleash all of his strength and permanently damage the other boy, Kakashi turned up. Kakashi casually grabbed hold of Naruto's collar and lifted the blond boy up off the ground.

"It's good to see that you three are full of so much energy so early in the morning," he said, adding on a chuckle. "How about we head on up, collect a mission, and then use all of that energy there, hm?"

Naruto grumbled about how unfair the man was, while Sakura sniggered. They silently headed up to the top of the tower so that they could pick up their new mission. All three of them hoped that Naruto was correct, and Naruto was even praying that he was right. Naruto wrung his hands and even began to sweat as he thought about what could (and possibly could not) happen. He fretted over the thought of being wrong. He wondered if Sasuke and Sakura would still listen to him if he was wrong, and he wondered if they would drop whatever act it was that they had been putting up.

How they behaved could have very been just an act, for all Naruto really knew, and, deep down, they could still be themselves, laughing at him and humouring him.

Naruto hoped that was not the case; he hoped that he had managed to have a real (even though some of it was through lying) effect on them and how they felt towards him.

Suddenly, Naruto felt slightly confident; he could change anyone's and everyone's behaviour towards him. He grinned, thinking of all the times that he had managed to change another person's perspective on him for the better.

"I should and won't have any trouble," he whispered to himself. "I'm just that awesome! I have too much charisma, and I am way too likeable!"

Naruto chuckled to himself, and he failed to notice Sakura elbow Sasuke a few times. Once the girl had Sasuke's attention, she pointed to Naruto's back and mouthed "hot-air".

Sasuke nodded.

They entered the top room and were greeted by a team of chuunin assistants helping the hokage sort through some files. There were four chuunin in the room, each sorting out their own piles, and there were also four ANBU, each posted to a different corner of the room. At the long table, and sitting in the middle, was the hokage, chewing on the tip of his pipe in contemplation. The old man was reading over some scrolls, occasionally scratching out something on the paper.

Those seated at the table all stared over to see who had entered. The ANBU remained silent and still.

"Welcome!" Iruka called, smiling a little. "Are you here for your next assignment?"

Naruto looked the man over, and felt a horrid pain in his chest. Iruka was pale, and a little dishevelled. His skin was waxy, and he had large bags under his eyes, almost as though he was sick. He was not sick though, and Naruto knew that very well. He was, most likely, still grieving for Mizuki.

"Master Iruka, why are you here?" Naruto asked, feeling his voice croak a little. He worried for the man, and he hoped that the nature of Mizuki's death would not change Iruka's fate and bring his end closer. "Do you have time off from teaching at the academy?"

Iruka was silent for a little while, but he soon answered with a grin. "I haven't been able to concentrate very well, but I still need to work. Lord Hokage was kind enough to organise a temporary replacement for me, at the academy, and have me help out here as an assistant."

Naruto nodded.

"So, what can I help you guys with?" he continued. "We have a mission available—"

"We will not accept any D-rank mission!" Sasuke called out, startling a few chuunin into dropping their pencils, stunning the hokage into removing his pipe, and shocking the ANBU into looking among themselves.

_The_ Sasuke Uchiha just spoke out of turn, and in a rather Naruto-type fashion.

"I. . . I beg your pardon?" Sarutobi managed to say.

"We will only accept amazing missions of C-rank and higher," Sasuke said. He, then, slowly turned to face Naruto, and gave an awkward thumbs-up.

The plain, emotionless face made it all the more strange.

"H-he's right!" Sakura stuttered. "I agree wholly with Sasuke!"

An ANBU coughed.

"Y-you're not ready to take on higher missions just yet," Iruka stammered. "You're rookies! Genin can only take on D-rank missions, and simple C-rank when they have more experience—"

"We have plenty of experience," Sasuke said, speaking up again. "We deserve better missions." He turned to Naruto. "Right, Naruto?"

Everyone's attention suddenly found the blond-haired boy.

Naruto began to blush.

"Is this what you meant by refusing?" the black-haired boy asked.

Naruto's blush deepened.

The hokage suddenly seemed to decide on something, and he rose to his feet. "Alright," he said. "I'll give you a special mission." He smiled at the stunned faces around him, and especially the stunned faces of Team Seven. "I have a special recovery mission, here, available. Would you like it?"

"It's not an escort mission?" Naruto asked, tentatively.

Sarutobi shook his head. "No," he said, grinning. "This is even better. It's a retrieval mission. You'll be searching the forests, inside our fine village, for a young princess that has managed to go missing while on her evening stroll." He could not stop his grin from growing. "This is a very important mission, would you be willing to take it?"

Naruto tossed the idea around in his head. It was not the bridge builder, meaning he had probably gotten the day wrong, but it was a princess, and saving a princess did sound pretty cool to have on the mission 'resume'.

Sakura and Sasuke were also thinking it over. It sounded like an excellent mission, and a nice break from the boring work that they had previously been set to, but it seemed suspicious. For starters, why would Konoha have a princess inside its walls?

"We'll take it," Naruto said, causing his teammates to stare at him incredulously.

"Very good," the hokage said, and he scribbled something down. He, then, leaned over the desk to hand Kakashi the mission detail scroll. "I wish you all the best of luck."

Kakashi politely thanked the hokage, and Team Seven headed out of the room, and out of the tower.

Once they were out of view, Sarutobi sat down, leaned back in his chair, and grinned to himself.

Cautiously, one of the assistant chuunin spoke up.

"Lord Hokage, aren't Team Seven currently banned from all missions that involve living, breathing creatures?"

"Oops," said the hokage, with a casual shrug.

1

"Let's see the scroll! Let's see the scroll!" Naruto called, bouncing excitedly.

Kakashi held it out, and it was a snatched from his grasp by some lightning fast fingers. Naruto opened the scroll and read through it.

"So we'll be looking for a princess called Princess Torako," he read. "Torako. . ." He glanced over to his teammates and noticed their unimpressed facial expressions. "Tora. . . ko. . ."

Naruto grew angry and slammed the scroll onto the ground so hard that it bounced back up and hit him in the knee.

2

Naruto sat on top of the hokage monument, right on top of the head of the Fourth. He watched the village below him, yawning occasionally, but not shifting his attention to anything else. It was very early, but he could see that the village was happily bustling and quite loud. That was a ninja village; over half of the population always up well before dawn, the remainder waking up just after.

Naruto yawned again, and chewed the inside of his cheek. He was bored, very bored, but he could not move. He had a job to do, and that job was to watch the Main Gate part of Konoha for any visitors. He was on the look-out for Tazuna, the bridge builder, but he only vaguely remembered what the man had looked like. He planned to watch out for the old man _before_ telling his teammates, this time. The first two times, Sasuke and Sakura became rather annoyed at him, and the both of them also began to avoid him a little. It had now been just a little over a week since then.

He clenched his teeth; his _friends_ needed to understand that he would obviously not be able to remember every single detail from when he was twelve. Unfortunately, they seemed to think that he had to remember everything because, and in their words, he had "apparently lived through it all before".

He had the strangest feeling that if it was not for Obito showing up, and claiming the exact same thing, they would have stopped believing him quickly.

That was, however, if they ever actually believed him at all.

"So, what's my favourite little time traveller up to, today?"

"Bug off, Obito," Naruto growled, scowling. "We're not friends, and you know that very well."

The orange-masked man gave a small wounded cry. "OH! You still don't consider us friends? W-why not? I've tried so hard to earn your love, and, yet, you continue to reject me! Reject me like a cat rejects a dog! And only one of them is after love! Why does the cat continue to reject the dog? She can never see all the good things that he's done for her!"

Naruto stared at the man, unsure of what to say, but he allowed him to continue talking.

"La! I am that dog, Naruto! You are that cat! Why can't you see all of the good and love that I've done for you? Why, I remember that time when I shared my sweets with you! That time when we played pop-goes-the-weasel, in a more literal sense, and that time that I got down and dirty to wrestle with you young ones! Oh, and even the time when I brought you that fruit basket as a lovely gift."

Naruto had to stop him there. "What fruit basket?"

"Why, this one!" Obito released a seal on his hand and presented the boy with a fruit basket. "Ta-dah!"

Naruto stared at the basket, glanced at the man, and then was drawn back to the basket again.

He shifted his eyes to stare at the man in front of him. "You know that you don't have to behave like that, don't you?" he asked. "I'm the only one up here, so you're putting on a show for no-one." He then glanced at the basket again. "You stole that, didn't you?"

Obito chuckled, and his voice finally grew serious. "They won't miss the basket," he said, before placing it on the ground. He stared out over the village. "Still waiting for a special visitor, huh?"

Naruto sighed. "I have to, because I don't remember the dates," he confessed. "I think that Sasuke and Sakura are starting to have doubts that what I told them is actually the truth, you know, the stuff about being from the future."

"I don't think they believed you in the first place," Obito muttered, under his breath and out of Naruto's hearing range. "I'm sure that they still believe you, but are just upset that you're not as accurate about things as they hoped you would be."

"You think so?" Naruto asked, before chuckling. "I'm taking advice from the man that tried to kill me, and everyone else. Awesome."

The sarcasm was thick in Naruto's voice.

Obito shrugged. "Your world, your way, kiddo," he said. He, then, turned to leave. "Oh, by the way, I think that I saw some drunkard, down there, by the gate. Seemed out of place, y'know?"

He disappeared in a flash, leaving only Naruto behind. Naruto headed closer to the edge for a better look, and was given a fright when Obito returned, for half a second, to whisper in his ear.

"Also, your lovey-dovey friends are keeping you company up here. Just thought that you should know."

Obito disappeared again.

Naruto blinked, before turning around to look behind him.

"Sasuke, Sakura, I know you're there," he said, anxious over whether or not he would be speaking to anyone.

One of the nearby shrubs rustled, and then began whispering.

Naruto stared at the shrub for a short while longer, before he decided to head over and investigate. He was now positive that his teammates were there, and, if he was wrong, he still got a sentient shrub out of the deal. Sadly, it was not very likely that the shrub would be sentient.

As Naruto got closer, the shrub started shaking more violently, and the whispering became harsher. Then, just before he was standing in front of the plant, Sakura stood straight up, one small branch in either hand. She also wore a white band around her head, with a small branch stuffed in either side. Beside her, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do, Sasuke slowly stood up, transferred his branches to one hand, and raised his free hand in greeting.

"Hello."

Naruto sighed and squeezed the skin just in-between his eyebrows.

"Hello to you two, too," he said.

3

The office in Hokage Tower was peaceful, quiet and hard at work. The chuunin assistants were sorting through piles of reports, and the like, swiftly and efficiently. The hokage chewed on his pipe while he marked off some information, and signed a few documents; and Iruka was starting to feel much better, handing out tea to the hard workers. It was a rare and productive day.

The wooden doors (the one entry point) flew open, with a loud bang, and three people strode menacingly into the room. Naruto stood in the middle, Sakura stood to the left, and Sasuke stood to the right. They carried themselves as though they were playing mafia thugs, and they slouched just as bad when standing still. If it had been a movie, the three of them would be wearing black suits, black sunglasses, and a partially concealed weapon on their belts. They would all have their hair slicked back, be chewing on toothpicks, and would be wearing a dangerous scowl.

As if to add to the 'movie' effect, Sakura cracked her knuckles.

The office was completely silent, and all attention was given to the three genin.

". . . Can we help you three?" Sarutobi asked, being the only one capable of speaking up.

"We caught wind of a rumour that stated that there was a bridge builder in town," Naruto said.

"The escort mission involving that man. . ." Sasuke picked at a loose thread on his collar. "We want it."

Sakura only stood in silence.

Then Kakashi walked into the room, hit all three of his students on the head, and pulled them back by the collars; Sakura and Naruto in one hand, Sasuke in the other. He, then, bowed deeply.

"I am terribly sorry for their rude behaviours and poor attitudes," he said.

Several chuunin just nodded.

Sakura began to wriggle a little and, to Kakashi's surprise, managed to free herself. Instantly, Sakura knelt down and bowed as low as she could.

"Please allow us to have this mission," she said, almost touching her forehead to the floor. "Over the past few months, we, as a team, have grown and matured exponentially. We get along very well, we have grown adept at lower ranked chores, and we spend most of our free time with each other as good friends. We only wish to take on a C-ranked mission to show that we really have improved our skills, if but a fraction, and so that we could practice our teamwork on a more challenging task. Please allow us to do this, I beg of you, and please don't always think of Naruto as an example of our overall maturity."

Sakura, then, stood back up, and remained still, standing directly in front of Kakashi.

Kakashi glared at the girl, before walking up to her and pulling her back with his arm around her neck. He reminded himself to be very careful with holding her, seeming that she was quite slippery.

The Hokage thought for a moment, while his helpers whispered among themselves. He did not know if he should be concerned or not that they had obviously known that there was an escort mission for a bridge builder available.

Then again, Team Seven did not seem very normal, anyway.

"I'll give you the mission," he said, much to the surprise of everyone in the room, especially Kakashi. He turned to one of his helpers. "Go and fetch Mr. Tazuna."

"Lord Hokage, you can't be serious!" Iruka called, confused and worried. "They. . . They're only genin! They've only been genin for a few months! They're not ready."

"That's really Kakashi's place to decide," Sarutobi replied. "What do you think, Kakashi?"

'_Kill me.' _Was what he wanted to say. "They may need a little more training, but, if the mission is simple, they should be fine."

Sarutobi nodded. "Alright, then it's settled. Iruka, you can relax; Kakashi knows what he's doing, and he's experienced enough to know how to handle a situation should it go sour. He's more than competent."

Iruka did not say anything more, but he was obviously still very worried.

"Here's the bridge builder, Lord Hokage," the helper said, returning to the room with Tazuna in toe.

"Very good," said the hokage.

Tazuna glanced over the room, noticing each individual person that sat up the back with the hokage. He gradually shifted his attention to the ANBU that were each posted to one corer of the room, and finally he stared over to Team Seven, before grimacing.

"Wait, I'm going to be escorted by a bunch of preschool brats?" he asked, before focusing entirely on Naruto. "And the idiot-looking midget is going to help? Or is he their pet?"

"Hey!" Naruto roared, trying to struggle away from Kakashi's grip. "I'll have you know that I'm an incredibly exceptional ninja!" Tazuna had angered him the first time, and (somehow) even more the second time.

"I told you that you're unnaturally short," Sasuke muttered, smirking when Naruto turned to glare at him.

"You'd make an interesting pet," Sakura mused, stealing Naruto's attention away from Sasuke. "Besides, I prefer to think of you as our mascot."

"You. . . You guys," Naruto groaned, losing his previous vigour.

His friends were meant to back him up.

"Mr. Tazuna," the hokage spoke, "these three are, indeed, going to be your escorts, though you can rest assured that they're all capable ninja. If you're still concerned, there is no need to worry as their teacher, Kakashi Hatake, is a proficient and talented ninja. I can assure you that there is no need to worry, you'll be in good hands."

Tazuna nodded and grumbled.

Afterwards, Kakashi collected the mission scroll, and relieved his students for the remainder of the day. He made sure to remind them to meet up at seven the next morning so that they could set out. The rest of the afternoon, however, could be spent how they wanted it.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke walked away together, discussing their success in gaining the mission.

"So, what should we be in for?" Sakura asked, stretching her arms over her head casually. "We finally received the mission that you wanted?"

"Yes," Naruto replied, walking to the girl's left. "This is a real mission, and we'll get to fight like real ninja, and stuff." He, then, glanced over to Sasuke, who was walking on Sakura's right. "Try not to almost die, Sasuke," he said.

Sasuke shot Naruto a small glare. "Almost die?" he repeated. "That better have not been a threat. . . or a challenge."

Naruto grinned and shook his head. "It's some advice."

Sakura stared at Naruto, a very worried expression on her face. "Sasuke almost dies?" she asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said, nodding. "Don't worry, he gets better."

4

Sakura was the first to arrive at the gate, the next morning, and was soon greeted by Naruto. The both of them were a little thrown off over Naruto arriving before Sasuke, but that was soon forgotten as they started up a small conversation over what they had eaten for breakfast, as well as what they had packed for the mission. Sakura, of course, told Naruto off when he started to go into detail over the underwear that he had packed. It was something that she was certain that she could live happily without knowing.

When Sasuke finally showed up, the chatter quickly died down into an awkward silence.

"S-Sasuke," Sakura said, breaking the silence. "Good to see that you're. . . umm, ready." Her eyes travelled to his legs. "Got tired of the bandages?"

"You're wearing rainbow-striped socks," Naruto bluntly said. "Why?"

"Toe-socks," Sasuke corrected him, before folding his arms. "They are, now, my lucky toe-socks."

Naruto and Sakura shared an awkward glance with each other, before returning their attentions to the rainbow-striped lucky toe-socks.

"Gee, that's. . . _nice_," Sakura managed, giving a nervous laugh.

Naruto rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

"Yo, sorry I'm. . . late?" Kakashi trailed off, noticing Sasuke's socks. "That's different, I guess."

"They give me happy thoughts," Sasuke said in deadpan, enjoying the reactions that he was receiving. He, then, wriggled his toes. "They're my lucky toe-socks."

". . . Uh-huh," Kakashi said, pulling his attention away from the socks. "As long as you're happy, I guess."

Tazuna appeared behind Kakashi, having finally caught up, and noticed the socks straight away. Unlike those around him, he decided to keep his mouth shut. He had decided that he did not need to know, and did not want to know. Ninja were ninja, and he had heard rumours of stranger wardrobes amongst them. Heck, in the short while that he was inside Konoha, he had seen stranger. Two men, identical haircuts, both clad in tight green spandex suits. The image of them racing around Konoha on their hands would forever be burned into his memory, and there was no amount of brain bleach that could ever fix it.

That, and it also seemed to be a good thing amongst ninja. The stranger they were, the stronger they apparently were.

Tazuna suddenly decided that he was glad that the black-haired brat was wearing rainbow socks.

"Anyway," Kakashi said, changing the subject, "how about we head off?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto and Sakura both called, racing each other out of the village, and to the nearest tree.

"Out of the village!" Sakura called, pumping her fist into the air.

"Yes, yes, you're out of the village, congratulations." Kakashi nodded.

"This is an incredible step, in my life, that I have taken," Sasuke said, joining his teammates at the tree. "We should celebrate." He put down his bag, pulled out a pointed party hat, and fixed it to his head. "Yay," he said.

Naruto frowned. "Where did you get that party hat?" he asked. "From the trunk, again?"

Sasuke nodded. "There are a great many treasures that were hidden away in that trunk. I have brought a few appropriate ones along with me. I thank you, Naruto, for getting me to search through my home. I also thank you, Sakura, for doing the same. If it wasn't for you two, I would not have all these treasures that I now own."

Sakura and Naruto both glanced to each other again, both regretting the same thing. If it was not for them, Sasuke would still be mostly normal, and he was, pretty much, straight out telling them that they brought it upon themselves. It was their fault.

Sasuke lifted a party-horn to his lips, and blew on it.

A short while after Kakashi had confiscated both Sasuke's party hat and annoying party horn, they were off and walking, happily on their mission. Naruto and Sakura walked ahead of the group, chattering excitedly, while Sasuke walked behind Kakashi, probably trying to think of a way to steal back his items. Kakashi tried to ignore the boy behind him, and made sure to keep an eye on Tazuna, who walked beside him.

Kakashi also considered telling Sakura and Naruto to keep their talking to a minimum, but he decided to leave them be, for a little bit. It was their first time out of Konoha as ninja (and possibly at all), so they were obviously quite excited. He would let them have their fun for a short while longer.

He felt a small grab for the horn in his hand, and turned hid head to tell Sasuke off. Instead, he became quite interested in the puddle that was very out of place, considering how long it had been since it had last rained. He quickly glanced around his students, and noticed that none of them seemed to have seen the oddity. He did, however, manage to catch a small snippet of Naruto's conversation with Sakura.

"He won't die, but he'll want us to think that he did."

"Why's that?"

"Maybe because that's how he gets his kicks, traumatising young and innocent genin."

"Oh, how horrible of him! It's a good thing that you told me."

Kakashi shook his head. He did not know what they were talking about, and he, honestly, did not want to know. Strangely, though, he had a sneaking suspicion that it was about him.

Seemingly haven given up (for the moment, anyway) Sasuke quickened his pace to walk just in front of Tazuna. Kakashi slowed his walking down a little, wanting to know why it was that two ninja (and poorly hidden ones, at that) were waiting for what seemed to be an ambush. He hoped that they were just idiot bandits with basic ninjutsu skills.

"Hey, Sasuke, are you trying to catch up to us?" Sakura asked, having noticed where Sasuke had moved to.

"Not really," the boy said, frowning. "I just wanted you two to shut up. We are on a mission, you know." He paused for a moment. "What were you both talking about anyway?"

Sakura grinned. "Naruto was just telling me about what we should. . . Ah, ahhh!" She pointed behind Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to stare, just in time to see two enemy ninja wrap a barbed chain around Kakashi. The ninja, then, pulled the chain hard and ripped Kakashi into pieces.

Sasuke stared, unable to believe what he had just witnessed. Their teacher was dead, he just saw his teacher die easily.

"Told you," Naruto said to Sakura, before moving into an offensive position. "Be ready to fight, Master Kakashi won't be helping us 'cause he thinks that this is funny."

Sakura ground her teeth and quickly gained a battle stance. "Oh he does, does he?" she growled. She then called to Sasuke. "Sasuke, cover Tazuna! We'll take care of this!"

Sasuke stared at the girl, before glaring at her. No, he would not just simply watch Tazuna. Those ninja killed Kakashi, and they possibly got blood on his party hat and party horn.

Sasuke decided that he was also going to fight.

"One animal down," one of the enemy ninja said to the other, and they both chuckled.

They were about to say that they had taken care of two animals, but were interrupted by a stream of fire that separated them momentarily. They stared at the offender, not sure of what to say. They had expected to frighten the children, make them cry if they could, but it seemed that they had just made them angry.

Damn, and they had been hoping for much easier prey.

Suddenly, Sakura ran up between them, determined to take out the one on the right. Her taijutsu may have been lacking, but she was mad, and she knew that her hits could pack quite the punch when she was mad.

The man dodged her clumsy attacks easily, but received quite the shock when she managed to scrape him. He was surprised at her strength. Granted, she was not very strong, but she was a lot stronger than she looked.

Sasuke took on the enemy ninja that stood to the left. Sasuke's taijutsu was much better than Sakura's, so he was able to land the odd hit that the man had not managed to avoid. Sasuke also had speed on his side, which made him even more annoying. Still, the boy was not too much of a threat, just an annoyance.

"Well," Naruto said, after dragging Tazuna away from the fight. "Guess I'm looking after you, then."

Tazuna remained silent.

Both the enemy ninja glanced to each other and nodded. They had grown bored. Avoiding their opponents, they raced towards Naruto and Tazuna, ready to initiate a double attack and take out their target. If they also took out the kid, it was the hired village's loss, not theirs.

'_Shit! I forgot that they were going to come for Tazuna!'_ Naruto thought, quickly pulling out a kunai, ready to defend the man behind him.

Thankfully, Kakashi decided to rejoin the battle and coat-hanged both enemy ninja. He tied the, now, unconscious men up, before turning to his team.

"Sakura, your taijutsu needs a lot of work!" he said. "We'll work on that as soon as possible. Also, a ninja fights calmly, not angrily."

Sakura clenched her fists tightly, but kept her mouth shut.

"Sasuke, good job, but you should also learn to fight less angry."

"You're not dead."

"Naruto, I'd say good job for protecting the bridge builder, but you were careless up until the last minute. Be ready to fight at all times, not casually walk the man away and stand around as if it's the most normal thing to do!"

"You're not dead!"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, Master Kakashi," he grumbled.

"Now, Tazuna—"

"You're not dea—"

"Yes, Sasuke, I'm not dead!" Kakashi suddenly snapped at the boy, before growing calm again. "I used a substitution jutsu to escape their attack."

Sasuke glared. "Bastard."

Kakashi ignored the boy. "Now, Tazuna, mind telling me why the demon brothers were after you? Actually, mind telling me why there would be ANY enemy ninja after you? Your mission was a C-rank, no higher. C-rank missions may involve the occasional bandit, or rabid animal, but it certainly should not involve chuunin-level ninja."

Tazuna stared at the man sheepishly, before averting his gaze.

"I'll tell you," he said.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke approached the demon brothers cautiously.

"So, you knew what was basically going to happen, but you didn't tell me?" Sasuke asked, muttering angrily.

Naruto shrugged. "You had been welcome to join Sakura's and my conversation, you know. It wasn't a secret club."

Sasuke glared at the boy. "You still should have told me, regardless of whether or not I decided to join your loud conversation."

"How?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Do we suddenly have a telepathic link, Sasuke? Hang on, I'll try it now!"

"That's enough, you two," Sakura said, standing in between the boys. She folded her arms and stared at the unconscious men in front of her. "So, what can we do here?"

The two boys also became interested in the demon brothers.

Suddenly, Sasuke came up with an idea.

"I found some costume make-up in that trunk," he said, before going through his bag.

Naruto laughed. "Trust you, Sasuke, to bring along costume make-up," he said. "So, why did you originally bring it?"

Sasuke pulled out a small sponge and a small compact full of what looked to be white paint. "I was going to paint your face in your sleep," he said, as he started applying a little bit of the make-up to one of the demon brothers. "But this is a far better idea."

Naruto glared at Sasuke. "You're an ass," he said.

Sasuke shrugged. "You sleep like a log, so I have to do something." He, then, handed Sakura a make-up pencil. "Write on the other one," he ordered.

Sakura obliged and got to work.

Naruto pulled his permanent marker out of his pocket and decided to help Sakura decorate the other man.

Kakashi had just finished drilling Tazuna for information, and he was not happy with what he had learned. He was in the right kind of mood to just turn the mission right around and have them all head on home. He would, then, report Tazuna's deception to the hokage, and have this mission sorted out under a more appropriate ranking.

The corner of his eye caught his three students.

"What the," he said, staring over to where they were. "Hey, you three get away from those men! They may be unconscious, but they're still dangerous!"

He received two shouts of "yes, Master Kakashi" and one "hn" as a response.

About half a minute later, his students wandered over to him.

"What were you three doing, anyway?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Sakura grinned. "Just befriending them."

Kakashi blinked. "But they're unconscious. . . On second thought, I don't need to know. Just stay here, and we'll decide on what to do next."

"Yes, Master Kakashi," Sakura and Naruto replied.

Sasuke nodded slowly, but remained silent.


	11. Chapter 11

After Naruto and Sakura threw a few pretty impressive tantrums (and Sasuke backed them up with some pretty impressive sulking) Team Seven were on the move again, continuing to escort the bridge builder to wave. Kakashi had originally wanted to turn around and head home, but had eventually changed his mind. The genin had won, and Sasuke offered for more celebration. That, Kakashi refused. The party hat and party horn were no longer with them; Kakashi had thrown them away as soon as Sasuke's back was turned. Even though he had noticed that Sakura had caught him getting rid of the annoying items, she had not tattled on him. It seemed that she was also pleased to be rid of them too.

"Oh, look! A fish!" Naruto called, pointing to the water.

They were currently on a small boat, crossing a body of water to get into the Land of Wave. A brave middle-aged man had been waiting for them to arrive so that he could take them across, despite how nervous he was. Kakashi suspected that if the man had been caught, he would have been killed. He glanced back to Tazuna, unsure of what to feel. The bridge builder seemed to put everyone into danger, but it was for a good cause. Pulling his home out of economic poverty, out of the control of a power hungry leader, was good.

"I'm bored. Perhaps we should sing."

"I'm not so sure if that's a good idea, Naruto," Sakura spoke up. "I'm pretty sure that we need to be quiet."

"Aww, but I know a few good songs! There's this awesomely relevant one about rowing your boat—"

"Sing it, and I'll personally throw you overboard," Sasuke threatened.

Kakashi tried to ignore his team, but it never worked for too long. Eventually he would always start listening to them again, and he would hear more conversations that he would probably have been better without hearing.

Suddenly, Kakashi frowned.

That conversation that he had heard Naruto and Sakura having earlier had seemed much too related to what had happened straight afterwards. He wondered if they had been talking about him faking his own death (though, he had done it to see who the demon brothers had targeted, rather than because he enjoyed traumatising his students, like Naruto had said), and he shivered at the knowledge of it having been so very relevant to his choice of actions after.

He could almost consider Naruto's time traveller claim, but it just seemed too silly.

There had to be another explanation, and that was that what they had been talking about had just been a coincidence.

Yes, Kakashi preferred that explanation.

They soon made it to land, and they thanked the brave rower once they were back on solid ground. The rower gave a nervous nod, wished them luck and warned them to be cautious, and then left in his boat.

Naruto jumped up and down twice, Sakura stretched, and Sasuke just rolled his shoulders. They were all very happy to be back on dry land again.

"Alright, guys," Kakashi spoke up, gaining the attentions of his students. "We need to be very quiet and very cautious— that means no singing, Naruto. There may be many strong, much stronger than the demon brothers before, ninja around. We do not wish to gain their attentions. We just want to get Tazuna home safely, understand?"

He received three nods.

"Good."

They set off again, this time all wary of their surroundings— well, Kakashi, Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura were all wary; Naruto seemed to not care too much— and ready to protect the bridge builder as soon as the first sign of danger made itself known.

Kakashi caught a small part of Sakura and Sasuke's conversation.

"He said that they'll be much more dangerous," Sakura whispered.

"I wish that he would've told me everything before."

"You didn't join in before, you missed out. Heck, you missed out after the enemy ninja were branded."

"Hn, that idiot wrote 'official friends of Team Seven', didn't he?"

"Yeah, he thought it would be funny to brand them."

"Anything planned for this time?"

"Just to survive."

"Brilliant."

The conversation made Kakashi nervous, somehow.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped walking in front of them. He seemed to be listening for something. Kakashi also froze and listened. He could hear. . . something. Slowly, he reached into his weapons pouch and threw a star in the direction of the noise, startling his students.

Naruto jumped, and almost dropped his kunai. Clearly, he had not expected Kakashi to attack.

The bush that had been in the direction on Kakashi's attack rustled a little bit, and a frightened white rabbit hopped out. Kakashi narrowed his eyes and tried to ignore the vicious berating that he was receiving from a startled Sakura. _'Thought so,'_ he thought. "Everybody get down! We've got some unwanted company!"

Sakura was cut off during her rant on how she hoped that Kakashi would never be permitted to look after any children for extended periods of time, obviously not considering herself and her teammates to be children, when Naruto grabbed her forearm and pulled her to the ground with him.

Kakashi watched as Naruto seemed to try to flatten his body as much as possible, and keep from allowing Sakura punch his side too hard. Sakura had moved on to telling off Naruto for acting so extreme. Sasuke ducked forward a little, but it seemed to be more out of interest in watching his teammates than concern for Kakashi's warning.

Kakashi ducked a little, pulling Tazuna down by the shirt, to avoid having their heads cleanly taken off by a monster-sized sword. He slowly straightened up and turned to see where the sword had lodged itself into a tree. He stared at the sword, and the perpetrator that had chosen to now make himself known, and his eyes widened slightly.

Of all the people that they could be facing, it just had to be the infamous and dangerous Demon of the Mist.

"Zabuza Momochi."

Sasuke and Sakura stood up straight, before both getting into position to defend their client. Neither of them removed their eyes from their new opponent. Naruto stared over to them, before staring back over to Zabuza. He brushed himself off when he got back to his feet, grumbling on how he really had not needed to duck in the first place. Unlike his previous run-through, Zabuza's sword was swung much higher. It really had only been Kakashi and Tazuna that had needed to duck.

"How was I supposed to know that this time would be different?" he reasoned. He then stared over to Zabuza and grinned.

"Oi, Zabuza!" he called, causing everyone to glance his way. "Did you hear what we did to your two friends before?"

Zabuza remained silent.

Naruto's grin widened. "We're gonna' befriend the shit outta' you!"

Zabuza's gaze slowly met Kakashi's own, and Kakashi shrugged in response.

Kakashi, then, turned back to Naruto. "Naruto, you help your teammates guard the bridge builder now."

"Yes, Master Kakashi," Naruto called, before racing over to his friends.

Zabuza seemed to be snapped back into the present.

"So, Sharingan Kakashi, I'm so honoured that I get to fight you," he said, wickedly grinning under his bandages. "But the old man is mine, and I have a job to do, so we need to make this quick."

'_Sharingan?!'_ Sasuke thought, staring over to Kakashi.

Naruto almost flinched. He had somehow forgotten to mention that little detail to the kid who would have wanted to hear it the most. He honestly had no idea on how it had managed to slip his mind, but it may have had something to do with how he was more inclined to play around rather than behave completely seriously.

It may also have had something to do with the fact that he could not remember when it was exactly that Sasuke had managed to activate his own sharingan.

They were still poor excuses, though.

Zabuza swiftly removed himself from the tree, kicking off from the sword and the trunk, and used his own variation of the body flicker technique to relocate himself to stand on the surface of the nearby lake.

"He's. . . he's standing on water," Sakura said in awe.

Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing his hidden sharingan. He thought over how the young Uchiha clan member would take the news and, deeming that the kid would not take it too well, decided that he would make sure to explain everything later. At the moment, however, he was quite busy, so the explanation would have to wait.

Sasuke stared at Kakashi, half in disbelief, half in anger. He could see the sharingan eye that Kakashi had kept hidden, and it both angered and confused him. He did not think that Kakashi was somehow related to his clan, and wondered how he had managed to get the eye in the first place. He wondered if Kakashi had stolen the eye, given that it was well known that members of clans with prestigious bloodlines would rather all die than allow their secrets to fall into the hands of any others. The thought of it left a sickly taste in his mouth.

Sasuke glanced over to Naruto, and his anger flared up again as soon as he had noticed the look on the other boy's face. Naruto looked worried, sick, and, most of all, guilty. Then there was also Naruto's stupid claim to have been from the future, which would mean that the boy would have known regardless of whether or not they found out Kakashi's secret on this current mission or not.

"You knew, didn't you?" he growled.

Naruto flinched. He knew Sasuke was going to be mad, though he may have underestimated just how mad that would have been. "There's a bit of a story behind how Master Kakashi gained it," he said.

"And why you never told me?"

"I. . . forgot," he squeaked.

Sasuke clenched his fists. "How could you forget to mention _that_! If you're really from the future, you should know just how important that is for me to know."

If he was really from the future? Naruto bit his lip and fidgeted. Sasuke really did doubt it, but that did not come as any real surprise. Naruto had expected Sasuke to doubt him.

"Master Kakashi was chosen to teach us simply because he has the sharingan," Naruto explained. "He's meant to teach you how to control yours."

Sasuke glared at Naruto for a little longer, before staring away.

The boy was very angry, and Naruto felt very guilty.

Sakura stared among the two boys, unsure of how to react. She settled on reaching out and gently squeezing Naruto's shoulder, before doing the same for Sasuke.

It was all that she could do, really.

"He disappeared," Naruto said, watching the place where Zabuza had just previously been.

Sakura and Sasuke both tensed up beside him, and the three of them stared around for wherever the dangerous man could have gone. Around them, a thick mist started to form, making it difficult to see anything within a few centimetres ahead of their noses. They could hear each other breathing, but they were unable to see one another.

Cautiously, Sakura reached out to try and find one of her teammate's shoulders. Her hand rested on one, and she visibly relaxed, before squeezing it gently. She had momentarily panicked over being unable to see anyone else, and it relieved her to have found someone.

"I suggest that you stop touching me, unless you want to lose that hand of yours."

Sakura flinched back and almost squeaked. That was NOT Sasuke or Naruto that had responded.

The mist cleared around them a little, revealing Zabuza standing in amongst them. He glared at the girl, tightening his grip on his weapon. He would slice the frightened mouse in half, taking out the bridge builder and her teammates with her.

Unfortunately for Zabuza, what happened next was something that he was not expecting.

Sakura slapped him, hard. "You tricked me!" she yelled at him, forming a fist with her right hand. "And I trusted that your shoulder would be one that belonged to one of my friends. How dare you!"

Zabuza almost felt insulted— almost.

Kakashi swiftly moved among them, separating Team Seven and Tazuna from Zabuza by knocking the others out of the way. He had not been too sure of what had happened, but it had provided the perfect opportunity for him to act while Zabuza was distracted.

Sakura wiped her eyes, clearing them of her frightened tears, and she calmed down her own shaking. Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder, while Sasuke and Tazuna investigated what was wrong.

"I. . . I trusted that shoulder," she said, trying not to sob.

"Poor Sakura," Naruto said, patting her back. "How could you, Zabuza?"

Sasuke nodded, sharingan momentarily forgotten, also glaring at Zabuza. "Yes," he agreed. "She trusted you."

Kakashi did not want to know, but he felt an annoying duty to make sure that they were all fine, anyway.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked, not removing his eyes from Zabuza.

"That bastard made Sakura cry!" was Naruto's response.

Kakashi had been correct; he did not want to know.

"You have a strange team, Sharingan Kakashi," Zabuza said, sounding strangely more concerned than amused.

"You get used to them, after a while," Kakashi explained. He did not, however, explain that a big part of that involved ignoring them. No, let Zabuza suffer confusion.

Zabuza swung his sword wide, but Kakashi anticipated his attack and dodged, before retaliating with a thrown kunai. Zabuza's water clone was easily destroyed. As quickly as it had happened, a new Zabuza entered the battle.

"Are you alright now, Sakura?" Naruto asked.

Sakura nodded, regaining her defensive stance, ready to defend the bridge builder. She sniffled a little bit more, before glaring ahead, kunai at the ready. She really had been so frightened that she had no idea what to do, and, because of that, she had reacted rather dangerously. She thanked her lucky stars that her slapping Zabuza had managed to stun him for a few seconds, rather than have him retaliate instantly and kill them all.

"I'm fine, thank you both."

"That Zabuza man attacked us with a clone," Sasuke explained, watching the fight in front of him. His body was trembling all over. "They both move so fast; we can't do anything."

"Can't do anything?" Sakura repeated, before glancing to Naruto. "Is that true?"

Naruto nodded, unable to control most of his own shaking. He thought that he would have been able to handle this fight by now, but being so weak scared him. He was not used to being so weak.

"For the most part, other than being distractions, we're useless."

Sakura went thoughtful. "Distractions?" she repeated, thinking it over. "How would a genjutsu do?"

Naruto stared at her, a little stunned. Last time, Sakura had not done anything, so he was a little surprised by her suggestion. "Genjutsu?" he asked.

She nodded.

"What would you have in mind?" Sasuke asked, joining in.

"I'm not very talented at the moment," Sakura confessed. "But I can do a little. I could probably distract Zabuza for half a minute, at most."

Naruto tossed the idea over in his head. "Might be worthwhile," he said. "Master Kakashi is fast, but you wouldn't catch him in it too, would you?"

Sakura shook her head. "I'd hope not," she said. "My control is okay."

Naruto almost scoffed, remembering just how good Sakura's chakra control really was. What she had said about her control had been a severe understatement.

"Give it a go," Sasuke said, finally managing to fully control his trembling. "If anything, try to hide us."

Sakura nodded, blushing a little, before concentrating. She had to think of the perfect distraction first, and it came to her easily. She then focussed her chakra and watched her target carefully. She saw Zabuza destroy Kakashi's own water clone, before being attacked by another Kakashi. She had to wait until she had a decent opening.

There.

Kakashi braced himself as Zabuza moved to attack him, but was surprised to notice the man hesitate for a second or two. Kakashi took the opportunity to ready himself into another attack, and hit Zabuza hard just after the man had finished dispelling the genjutsu.

Zabuza leapt back a little, before shaking his head.

"I don't want to know," he grumbled, before charging at Kakashi again.

"You. . . you did it, Sakura!" Naruto said, amazed. "You only distracted him for a few seconds, but it worked!"

Sakura released the breath that she had been holding. "Thankfully."

"What did you show him?" Sasuke asked, also in a slight amount of awe.

Sakura's face went bright red. "W-well. . ." She trailed off. "Well, remember that day in the classroom? You know. . . when you. . . and that door. . . and then Mister Ibiki came to investigate and. . . yeah."

Sasuke blinked.

Naruto stared. He had somehow managed to completely forget about that damn door.

"What happened with that door, anyway?" he asked.

Sakura's face remained red, and she looked away. Sasuke stared back over to Kakashi's battle.

Naruto glared. It seemed as though neither of them wanted to talk about it, so he remained out of the loop. He really wanted to know, and it could not have been as traumatic an event as everyone else seemed to make it out to be. Honestly, what could Sasuke do to a damn door (that also, apparently, involved the T&I head) that would scar anyone, other than kiss it passionately, which Naruto hoped to not be the case.

"Let's just say that there are some jutsu that _should_ be forbidden," Sasuke finally answered.

"Huh?" Naruto replied, even more confused than before.

Kakashi managed to avoid another one of Zabuza's attacks, throwing the dangerous man off balance. Kakashi swung around and landed a powerful kick to the other's gut, causing Zabuza to stumble backwards and almost lose his grip on his sword. Kakashi came forward with another attack, hoping to knock Zabuza over, but was caught off guard by the man's powerful kick, sending him flying back a short distance.

Kakashi sat up and glared over at his opponent, a little winded but, otherwise, perfectly fine to continue.

He figured that one of his students, most likely Sakura or Sasuke, had used a genjutsu on Zabuza. Although the effect had not lasted long, it had given Kakashi more than enough of an opportunity to turn the battle around in his own favour. He was thankful for the help.

The strangest thing about the genjutsu, though, would definitely have to be Zabuza's reaction to it. The one line that he had uttered confused Kakashi a little. He had no idea what illusion one of his students could create that would confuse the Demon of the Mist, and he was not too sure if it would be the best for him to ask exactly what it was.

"You're talented, monkey-man," Zabuza called, rolling his shoulder.

"Thank you for the compliment," Kakashi replied, preparing a defensive stance. He would allow Zabuza to come to him. "You, yourself, are quite strong."

Zabuza chuckled, glancing away. "Of course," he said. "It's been an honour."

Zabuza, then, charged away from Kakashi, much to the copy-ninja's shock. He headed directly for the separated students, sword at the ready to swing. He would attack, and the children would never see it coming, the mist was still too thick for them to see through properly.

Kakashi swore and chased after the man. He knew that he had to get Zabuza more interested in him once again, just to keep him away from Tazuna and his students.

As he got closer and could see his students more clearly, his eyes widened a little.

'_I see,'_ he thought, before narrowing his eyes. _'Good job, kids.'_

Zabuza finally reached the kids plus his target, and swung his sword around, slicing three of then in half, leaving the fourth, that brat that he clearly remembered from the horrible genjutsu, staring in horror and soaked in blood.

He smirked as the brat stared back over to him, eyes wide and body shaking, and readied another attack, but was beaten to it when a kunai flew past him, slicing his side, and embedding itself in the dark-haired brat's forehead.

Zabuza froze, before turning to stare at Kakashi, mostly in confusion, but with a little amount of curiosity. He heard the child collapse with a dull thump, but he ignored it.

"Sharingan Kakashi," he began, "you'd really kill your own students to get to me?" He chuckled. "You're more interesting than I thought, not so much a sentimental sap as I figured you were."

Kakashi smirked back.

"I'm full of surprises."

Zabuza's eyes widened, not liking the smirk that Kakashi had sent his way, and he turned back to stare back at the bodies. One by one, the bodies disappeared in a few puffs of smoke, leaving behind no proof that they were ever there to begin with.

"Clones!"

Kakashi took the distracted moment to pull out another kunai and attack, forcing the knife into Zabuza's lower back and twisting it painfully. He removed the kunai almost as quickly as he had used it, and aimed for the jugular in Zabuza's neck. His speed was incredible, and the other man barely had enough time to gasp before he exploded into water.

Zabuza's water clone had died.

Kakashi swore and spun around, searching the mist for the real Zabuza. He thought that he had been chasing the real one then, and his sharingan had not even registered the difference between that clone and the real Zabuza. He figured that Zabuza must have used a substitution technique right at the very last second.

Kakashi was fast, but so was his opponent.

"Your brats aren't too bad either," Zabuza said, adding another chuckle onto the end. "I was too distracted to notice that they weren't real."

Kakashi stared over towards one of the old, thick trees that grew by the lake, and noticed a shadowy figure standing there. That was where the real Zabuza was.

"Well, I did train them, you know," he said, smirking.

"Using shadow clones was a brilliant idea," Naruto whispered, grinning to himself.

"You're welcome," Sakura replied, smiling proudly.

"Hn," Sasuke huffed, "I contributed to that idea too."

Sakura grinned.

The group of them, Team Seven and Tazuna, were hidden a short distance away, concealed by the low growing bushes, and very tall grass. Back when they had been standing there, Sakura had turned down forming another genjutsu just to hide them, but had, at Sasuke's insistence that they move and hide, brought up the idea of Naruto using shadow clones to replace them. They had all been a little worried over whether or not it would work, at first, but were all pleasantly surprised when it had. They made sure that they could see what was happening from where they were hiding, just in case the idea had not worked and they needed to move again.

Sasuke shifted closer to Sakura, trying to get away from the thistle that he had previously been dangerously close to.

"Can you believe how casually Kakashi killed the clone that looked like me?"

"Yeah, he get's some kind of sick pleasure out of it," Naruto insisted. "I'm sure of it."

"Well, he is a ninja, right?" Tazuna offered, hidden beside Naruto.

"Yes," Sasuke replied. "And he also has the sharingan—" He shot at glare over to Naruto. "— which would help him identify whether or not we were real, but he still seemed to take too much pleasure in killing me."

"Hey, I said I was sorry," Naruto grumbled.

Sakura sighed, and she elbowed both boys on either side of her. "We should try to keep quiet, you two."

"Yes, Mum," both Naruto and Sasuke replied, earning them both a smack to the back of the head.

Sasuke glared at Sakura, before returning his attention to the battle. He frowned. "We've lost them, guys."

Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna all stared out to the field and stared around. They all paled when they noticed that their teacher and his opponent were both nowhere to be seen. The mist had cleared up greatly since the beginning of the battle, but it still was thick enough to make it extremely difficult to see.

"That's. . . not good," Sakura said. "We need to know where they are so that we can avoid danger."

"You're ninja, but you lost them?" Tazuna asked. "But don't you guys have some crazy kind of sensory abilities, or something?"

"We're only in training," Naruto grumbled. "And not all ninja are good at that."

"Who wants to be a scout, then?" Sasuke asked, glancing at his teammates. "Naruto, how about you?" At the horrified stare that he received, Sasuke decided to try something else. "Or, instead, why not send a shadow clone to go and investigate where they are, so that you don't end up dying?"

Naruto stared at the boy for a little bit longer, wondering if Sasuke had just tried to get him killed or not, before nodding and creating a shadow clone. The clone nervously crept out of their hiding space and darted away into the mist. Team Seven watched him disappear, and all held their breaths.

A few minutes later they could hear the clone screaming.

"Maybe we should have sent the real Naruto," Sasuke mumbled to himself, possibly knowing that he had spoken loud enough for the real Naruto to hear him.

Naruto sent him a glare that could kill.

They all glanced over, squinting through the mist, only to see the shadow clone running back towards them.

"Get up! Run! Run!" he shouted

"Run?" Sakura asked, before noticing Sasuke suddenly get to his feet.

Sasuke gave Sakura a small nudge with his foot, one that indicated that she should get to her feet as soon as possible, before turning around to flee.

Beside her, Naruto also hurriedly got to his feet, and he also tried to drag her up.

Tazuna also stood up.

Then she saw it.

Headed towards them, chasing the shadow clone, was a huge wall of water. The water hit the clone, and he was dispelled with a terrified scream. Quickly, Sakura grabbed Tazuna's hand and got to running away. She barely managed to catch up to Naruto, and would have no hope of catching up to Sasuke. Behind them, the wall of water got closer and closer.

"What did you do?!" she yelled at Naruto.

"I didn't!" he cried back. "Master Kakashi did it!"

Sasuke, ahead of them, leaped up into the trees.

"Get up here!" he shouted at them. "You won't manage to outrun it!"

Sakura and Naruto both held onto Tazuna and leaped up, barely making one of the lower branches. Sasuke hopped from his tree over to theirs, and sat on the branch above the one that they were on. He helped hold Tazuna in place, by grabbing the man's collar, while they prepared for the wave to hit their tree.

"Brace yourselves," he called.

The wave slammed into the tree, and the tree shook violently. The four of them held on tightly, partially to Tazuna and to the plant. The last thing that any of them had wanted was to fall into the water below.

"What the hell did you do?" Sasuke asked, tightening his hold on both Tazuna and his branch.

"Master Kakashi did it!" Naruto shouted back, loosening his grip on both Tazuna and the tree a little to shake his fist at Sasuke. "I barely got to see what happened! All of a sudden there was water chasing me."

The water began to die down, but there was another hit to their tree as Zabuza was slammed against it by the remainder of the wave. Naruto managed to lose his balance, so Sasuke and Sakura let go of Tazuna to help keep him up. Tazuna had both his arms and legs wrapped around his branch, so he was fine for the moment.

"Impressive attack, Sharingan Kakashi," Zabuza managed to say, in between his panting. "However, I'm still not done—"

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all fell out of the tree and landed in Zabuza's lap, causing the man to give a painful shout. Zabuza moved forward a little, but it was at the same time that Naruto decided to sit up, so their heads smacked together.

Zabuza gave another painful shout, partially marvelling over just how hard the boy's head was, and continued to grunt in pain as the three genin hurriedly tried to climb out of his lap. Sakura managed to elbow him in the face, almost breaking his nose, and Sasuke, who was also hit by Sakura but in the chest, managed to fall back onto his body and crack one of his not-already-broken ribs, before finally managing to climb off him successfully.

Kakashi watched, slightly amused at how his students, as weak as they were against a special jounin, seemed to be causing Zabuza more pain in that small moment than he had managed to inflict upon the man in the entire duration of their battle.

He was both proud and jealous, but mostly proud.

"How about now?" he asked, preparing another kunai.

"I'm. . . not d-done!" Zabuza called, finally free of the three brats.

Before Kakashi could finish the battle by killing the man, two battle senbon flew into Zabuza's neck, piercing it through to the other side, causing the man to freeze and then go limp.

Kakashi was momentarily stunned, unsure of what to do next. He decided to check the body, a little worried over the fact that someone else had quite obviously interfered. "Seems to be dead. . ." he muttered, glaring over in the direction that the needles had originated from.

A hunter ninja, one that Naruto instantly remembered to be Haku and that Kakashi instantly noted to be the interferer, appeared to collect the body.

"I thank you for weakening him, sir," he spoke to Kakashi, ignoring the genin around him. "I've been chasing this man for quite some time, now." He lifted the body onto his shoulder. "I shall return him to my village and have his body destroy—"

"We tried to be friends with him," Naruto interrupted Haku, instantly gaining his attention. "Unfortunately, he upset poor Sakura by pretending to be a shoulder that she trusted."

"It was horrible!" Sakura insisted.

Sasuke slowly patted her on the shoulder.

"Uh-huh. . ." Haku turned away from the three. "Anyway, I must be off, thank you again."

With that, Haku disappeared.

Kakashi watched him go, before his legs started to quiver and he collapsed. Unlike in Naruto's previous play-though, he went unnoticed by his students.

"Who was that?" Sasuke asked, curious.

"That's Haku," Naruto said. "He's gonna' become our friend too."

Sasuke nodded.

Sakura also nodded, having thought it over a little first, before she turned around and noticed that their teacher was in a rather vulnerable position. "Master Kakashi fainted," she said.

Her teammates glanced over to her, before staring over to where their teacher was. They gathered around him.

"He used up too much of his chakra," Sasuke mused, looking Kakashi over. He gently kicked the man's shoulder, causing Kakashi to give a groan. "He's still alive, though."

There was a cough from above them, and the three genin glanced up to the tree to see Tazuna with his arms wrapped around the branch.

"Can you guys help me down?" he asked.


	12. Chapter 12

When Kakashi came to, he found that he was tucked into a warm futon inside a comfy little home. He stared at the grey ceiling for a short while, before turning his head to look around him. The home was rather small, from what he could see, and it was very modest. Over to the far left, there was a dark haired woman humming to herself while she worked in the kitchen. She was cooking something that smelled delicious, and Kakashi felt his stomach rumble. He wondered how long he had been unconscious for, as well as where, exactly, he was.

He tried to sit up, but found that he could not move.

One of the other few things that occurred to him was the lack of arguing. He glanced around for his students, and began to worry a little because he could not find them. He was not too worried about their wellbeing, just the poor people that they could encounter. That, and he was worried over what mischievousness they could be getting up to while there was no supervision.

Quietly, the young lady from the kitchen wandered over to Kakashi.

"It's good to see that you're awake, Teacher," she said, smiling gently. "We were quite worried."

Kakashi glanced back up to the ceiling for a short moment, before returning his attention to the attractive young lady.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the lady apologised. "You're one of the ninja that was escorting my father home. You're in our house, and we set you to bed so that you could rest." She smiled again. "My father told me about how amazing your fighting skills are, as well as all that you and your team have done for him. We wish for you to stay here until you have happily recovered."

Kakashi nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"I'm Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami. I am honoured to meet you."

"Kakashi Hatake," Kakashi responded. The woman was very attractive. "May I ask where my students are?"

"Your students?" Tsunami repeated, thinking for a short moment. "They were waiting by your side for so long. They seemed to be very worried for your heath—"

Kakashi coughed.

"— but I decided that they needed some fresh air, so I sent them outside," she explained. "They're lovely and polite—"

Kakashi coughed again.

"— and have been a great help around the house; they volunteered to help with chores." She stared at him concerned. "Would you like a glass of water? That sounds like a nasty cough."

"I'll be fine," Kakashi assured her. "And it's good to know that they've been put to good use."

Tsunami's bright smile returned, and she nodded vigorously. "They're so lovely! They're even outside playing with my son, Inari—"

Kakashi started coughing again, and Tsunami panicked a little.

"I'll get you a glass of water!" she said, quickly racing over to the kitchen taps.

'_She has a son!'_ Kakashi thought, and he stared over to her as she returned with a glass. _'Damn it.'_

1

Haku watched his Master, Zabuza, resting. He was very worried for the man as he had never seen him so beaten up. Whoever had fought him certainly was no pushover, and Haku briefly wondered if Zabuza would end up fighting him again. That would be okay, though, because Haku would be around to make sure that everything would go fine. He would leap into battle the moment that it seemed that his Master was having a little bit of trouble.

What really concerned him, though, was Zabuza's sleep talking. Normally Zabuza never spoke in his sleep but, for some reason, he seemed to be doing it now. Zabuza also seemed to be a little uneasy in his sleep, which was something else that Haku had never seen before. It made the boy wonder if Zabuza had managed to come across anything horrible enough to give him nightmares during his last fight.

"That jutsu should never have been. . ." Zabuza mumbled, before trailing off again.

Haku was confused over Zabuza's continuous talking about a jutsu, a door, a scarred man, and an unfortunate young boy.

2

Team Seven stared down at the young boy in front of them. He was Inari, Tsunami's son, and had been a little brat when they had first encountered him. He would go on about how they were all going to die, how real heroes never existed outside of stories, and how none of them would ever to be able to understand all the pain and suffering that he had endured.

Naruto had promptly turned to Sasuke and told him to console the brat.

Sasuke had refused.

Sakura, though, tried to help.

She trapped Inari in a genjutsu, one showing him all of the things that she had been having to put up with ever since Team Seven was formed. She had been positive that her pain could match his, but she had been wrong. When she had dispelled the genjutsu, Inari had been shaken but, otherwise, remained completely unconvinced.

"There is a better way to show him true pain and suffering," Sasuke had said. He glared at Naruto. "Unfortunately, I don't have the mangekyo sharingan, or even an activated sharingan, to use."

"We want to explain our pain and suffering to him, not traumatise him," Naruto had said, after sighing. "And would you just let the sharingan thing go, already."

"No," Sasuke had replied, after having drawn a weapon.

Naruto had formed several shadow clones. "Bring it."

The boys had ended up in a fight, and Sakura had kept Inari out of the way.

Inari, however, had been impressed by their "ninja magic". He had then stated that he would make them a deal. They were to help him learn "ninja magic", and he would not bring up the hero subject again.

So, now, they were teaching him to throw projectile weapons. Of course, it probably was not such a good idea to give an eight-year old (with absolutely no previous real ninja training) live weapons, but none of the genin gave any indication that the thought had occurred to them. . .

. . . Or that they had even cared.

"You need to pull your arm back straighter!" Sakura chastised.

"Okay!" Inari replied.

"And don't close your eyes when you throw it," Sasuke said.

"Right!"

"And stop throwing them in my direction!" Naruto called, frustrated.

Sasuke glared. "If you were a true ninja, you'd be able to dodge them happily."

Naruto glared back. "I can dodge them," he growled. "It's just that I don't enjoy being the target."

"Quit complaining." Sasuke turned to Inari. "Make sure that you hit him this time, okay?"

Inari furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Umm okay," he said.

Naruto side-stepped Inari's next throw, and he glared at Sasuke even more harshly than before.

"Is this still because of the Master Kakashi sharingan thing?"

Sasuke also intensified his glare. "You should have told me."

"That's a 'yes', then."

Sasuke pulled out his own assortment of live weapons. "Next lesson, Inari: teamwork!"

Naruto gave a yelp as Sasuke, then, began to assault him by hurling weapons his way. Unlike Inari, Sasuke could aim and, most probably, land a hit.

Inari stood back, watching, before turning to Sakura.

"I'm sorry that I underestimated your pain and suffering."

Sakura nodded. "It's quite alright, Inari."

3

Kakashi awoke again, after having a horrible dream. He had dreamt that his Team, the three genin, had become parents, each to a mystery partner (though, he highly suspected that Naruto had married Anko, Sakura had married Ibiki, and Sasuke had just asexually reproduced), and that he, poor old, unfortunate Kakashi Hatake, had become the Jounin instructor to each of their brats. The reason that he had considered the partners, though, was because these brats were worse than their parents, ten-fold. He had gotten up to the part of his dream where the mini-brats had just finished another Tora mission. They had turned to Kakashi, stepford smiles on their faces, and had taken a step towards him.

"We love you, Master Kakashi," Ryuuta Haruno, Saya Uzumaki, and Kyousuke Uchiha had said.

Kakashi was positive that he had never been happier to not be dreaming in his entire life.

A feeling of uneasiness flooded him again, and he lifted his head a little to look in front of him. He was greeted by three faces, Sakura on the left, Sasuke in the middle, and Naruto to the right. Each of them were wearing surgical masks, and Sakura had her long hair tied up into a pony-tail. Sasuke had pushed his bangs back by moving his forehead protector to the top of his head. Naruto was not wearing his large jacket.

Kakashi could feel himself start to sweat as Sakura and Naruto grinned at him. Sasuke remained indifferent.

Each had a different tool in their hands. Naruto held a pair of long tweezers, Sasuke held a pair of large scissors, and Sakura held a small bottle of glitter-glue.

Sasuke slowly closed the scissors.

Kakashi quickly sat up, and pushed the three genin away from him. His hands then shot up to touch his face, feeling for his mask. He sighed thankfully, noticing that his mask had not been removed. He had sworn that they had removed his mask and applied glitter to his face, but that seemed to not be the case. . .

. . . Well, they had not succeeded in doing so, at least.

He glared at the three of them.

"Master Kakashi, that was dangerous!" Sakura and Naruto bellowed at him. Sasuke just glared at Kakashi, and then held up his scissors to prove a point.

"What were you three up to?" Kakashi asked, angrily. "You weren't trying to remove my mask, were you?"

The three genin slowly glanced among each other, before returning their attentions to their instructor.

"Though we certainly considered removing your mask, that's not what we were doing," Sakura confessed.

Sasuke slowly held up a glittered card.

"We were just making you a 'get well' card," he explained.

Kakashi twitched.

_'Just change the subject, Kakashi, change the subject and everything will be alright,'_ he thought to himself. _'If this is my punishment for what I did in the past, I'm so sorry Obito and Rin.'_

"Though this is all very lovely, I do have something to tell you all," Kakashi said, and he considered forbidding them from ever reproducing but he quickly decided against it. No, the brats would probably, then, reproduce just to spite him. Then Naruto would make Hokage and Sasuke plus Sakura would become council members. They would force Kakashi into being the instructor for their offspring from hell.

Instead, Kakashi decided to bring up his thoughts on Zabuza and his well-being. "Now, I want you three to listen very closely to what I have to say, alright?" He glanced among them. "Zabuza might actually be alive."

Naruto and Sakura silently glanced at each other, but, otherwise, did not say anything.

"Well, duh," Sasuke spoke up.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "How would you know that?"

Sasuke did not answer.

"We were discussing the subject of it before," Sakura explained, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "After much consideration, and stopping Sasuke from harming Naruto because of the sharingan again,—"

"Sakura!"

"— we decided that it was, indeed, very possible for Zabuza to be alive," she finished, having ignored Naruto's shout at her.

Sasuke scowled at Naruto. "Still not forgiven."

Kakashi sighed. He was getting another headache.

"Anyway, to make sure that you'll be ready, should we manage to encounter Zabuza again, we'll get to work on some chakra control exercises. They should help."

Naruto leaned towards Sakura. "He meant to say 'hurt' instead of 'help', you know."

Sakura nodded.

Within the next two hours, Kakashi had taken his students out to a secluded area to train. He was out on crutches, while his students pretty much ran circles around him. It was as though they had wanted to trip him up.

Naruto was back in his jacket, and Sakura had her hair out again. Sasuke, though, had decided to wear a feathery pirate hat. His forehead protector was back on his forehead, though, and all the surgical masks had been discarded.

"What's with the hat, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm still punishing Naruto," Sasuke had replied.

Kakashi regretted asking.

He showed the students a few trees.

"We'll be doing some tree climbing," he said, focusing his chakra into his feet, and walking up the nearest tree. "This should help you to improve your chakra control. Too much chakra, you will damage the tree, while too little chakra will cause you to slip. I'd like to see you get started."

'_This should be easy, I've done this before,'_ Naruto thought. _'It's not a jutsu, just chakra control. Let's see. . . last time I used too little chakra. . ."_

Naruto charged at the tree, managed two steps up, before he shoved his leg into the tree. He slipped and fell backwards, while his foot remained caught.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi all just stared at the boy.

"So," Kakashi said. "What have we learned today?"

In a completely serious tone, Sasuke spoke up. "That we should not invite Naruto around for ceiling parties."

They all slowly stared at the dark-haired boy, but he gave no indication that he was joking, or even cared. He just adjusted his hat, moving it into a more comfortable position for himself.

Naruto glared at him.

"Master Kakashi, can't you make him take that stupid hat off?"

Kakashi stared at Naruto. "It doesn't seem to be hindering him in any way and, as long as it does not become a hindrance, I do not have the right to remove it from him."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Well, what about that party hat, then? You removed that from him, despite it not being a hindrance."

"That's different," Kakashi replied. "That party hat irritated me, therefore it was a hindrance."

"Then can I kill him? He's irritating me."

"Only if you can make it to the top of the tree," Kakashi replied. "And without damaging the trunk any further. . . before noon. . ."

"So, if we make it to the top before noon, can we destroy Naruto's jacket?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi chuckled. "Of course."

"Awesome!"

Naruto glared at her. "Only if you can catch me!"

Sakura shrugged. "I bet Sasuke wouldn't be opposed to the idea."

"Not in the very slightest," Sasuke said, tossing around a kunai in his hand.

Sakura eyed the tree in front of her. "I bet that I can scale that well before noon."

By the time that it had hit late evening, Naruto had made it almost halfway up the tree. He was tired, sweaty, hungry, and was getting irritable. The forest was getting dark, and the temperature was dropping quickly, so Naruto was also starting to get cold. He reasoned that more exercise would easily warm him back up, but, for some reason, he was still having so much difficulty with climbing the stupid tree.

The only thing that made him feel better about it was that Sasuke was having difficulty too.

Both Sakura and Kakashi had returned to Tazuna's house a fair while go, so only Naruto and Sasuke were left. Sakura had been correct in claiming that she would be able to scale the tree before noon, and she even managed to do it on her first try. She repeated the exercise a few more times, before deciding to get Kakashi to give her a hand on her taijutsu.

Thankfully, and much to Sasuke's annoyance, Sakura's call about Naruto's jacket had been a joke. It did irritate Naruto, though, that the dark-haired boy had really wanted to destroy the item of clothing. Granted, Naruto wanted to destroy that stupid pirate hat, but his jacket was different. It was his signature jacket, and, therefore, much more important than some hat found in a trunk in the back of a house.

Naruto groaned. "I will climb this damn tree, even if it kills me."

"And if I make it to the top before you, I'm still destroying that ugly jacket!" Sasuke had obviously heard Naruto, so he responded.

Naruto, who was sitting at the base of his tree, glared over to Sasuke, who was sitting on a branch in his own tree. They locked eyes for a moment.

"If we're racing to the top, you're not allowed to take breaks in the tree," Naruto called. "Start on the ground so that it'll be fair."

"Yes, fair," Sasuke called back. "Fair like remembering to tell me about the sharingan."

"Damn it, Sasuke! You still carrying on about that?!"

"I just want you to know that your inability to tell me hurt me deeply."

"Just shut-up."

"So deeply that I was forced to wear this hat to make me feel better."

Naruto's head snapped up. "That's why you're wearing that damn hat?! I knew it! I flippin' knew it!" He jumped to his feet and pointed at the other boy. "This is some big revenge thing to you, isn't it?!"

Sasuke huffed and turned his head away. "Well, I won't deny that," he said.

Naruto forced some chakra into his feet and ran at Sasuke's tree. The other boy noticed what was going on, forced some chakra into his own feet, and then began running to the top.

Naruto was going to kill him, and probably in the most painful and humiliating way possible.

4

"_NARUTOOOOO!"_

"_Oh, god! Naruto! Naruto!"_

"_Hang on, we have to get him out of there!"_

"_Get him to a medic! Hurry!"_

Naruto jumped awake, cold sweat and morning dew covering his body. He smacked heads with Sakura once again and for the exact same reason as last time. He had dreamt that horrible sound-only dream again, and it had felt just as real as the previous time. The difference this time, though, was that he was not crying. He was not crying, but he was shaking all over.

"Again?! Again with the hard head?!"

"It wouldn't have happened again if you had learned your lesson about hovering from last time."

"Do you want to be hit?"

"Hn."

Naruto ignored Sakura and Sasuke talking to think more about his dream. He heard the voice of the older Sakura once again, but he had also heard three other voices. He could not put names to two of the voices, but he was pretty sure that the second voice had been Iruka.

He was scared, scared because of how real it seemed to him again. He had thought that the previous time had just been a one-off kind of an experience, but that had not been the case. He heard more than the time before, which made him question whether or not there would be more to come. Would there be a story to all of this? Was he trying to remember something that once happened? If so, how could he not actively remember whatever it was if it had been real?

He had too many questions.

Slowly, he glanced over to Sakura. She was fussing over a large, red mark on her forehead. He, then, glanced over to Sasuke. The boy looked a little beaten and worn, but was otherwise fine and indifferent. Lastly, he glanced around him. He was still in the forest, sitting on the ground. It appeared to be very early morning, considering the orange and blue sky, and there were birds everywhere. A few were flitting about and whistling at each other, while the rest could not be seen but certainly could be heard.

"It's morning," he said, observantly.

"It is," Sasuke replied, not looking away from Sakura (or, more specifically, her bright red forehead).

"I was just checking to see if you were okay, before you decided to bolt up and head-butt me!" Sakura called.

"Check on me?" Naruto repeated, a little confused.

Sakura sighed. "Sasuke told me that you two continued to climb trees last night." She frowned at the black-haired boy. "Apparently, you guys ended up fighting, you fell and hit your head, probably giving you a concussion, and he didn't think to tell me until I turned up to look for you both this morning."

Sasuke shrugged. "He didn't stir when I shook him."

"That's all the more reason to have been concerned!" Sakura screamed at him.

Naruto frowned. He could not remember much of the night, not much more than chasing Sasuke up the tree, prepared to beat the snot out of him. He remembered catching up to Sasuke, at one point, by grabbing hold of the boy's ankle. He thought for a little longer. Did they fight in the tree? What happened after that?

He looked down himself and froze. He was not wearing his jacket. Worriedly, Naruto stared all around him, searching for the orange item of clothing. He still was unable to see it.

He narrowed his eyes at Sasuke.

Sasuke noticed Naruto glaring at him, and glared back. "What?"

"Where's my jacket, Sasuke?"

Sasuke blinked.

"Sasuke," Naruto growled dangerously.

Sasuke smirked. "I made it to the top first, therefore I got to dispose of your jacket."

"SASUKE!"

Naruto attempted to launch himself at the boy, but Sakura reacted quickly and pulled him back down.

"No major jumping about until we get Master Kakashi to look at your head," she chastised.

Naruto sat back down, folded his arms, and then grumbled. "Yes, Mum."

Sakura had to hold herself back from smacking the blond's head. Somehow, she managed.

"So what happened last night?" Naruto asked, still grumbling. "I only remember catching up to you, Sasuke."

Sasuke scoffed. "Grabbing my ankle is not 'catching up', idiot." He thought for a moment. "I kicked you back, you charged, your foot went through the tree again, I punched you, you grabbed me, we hit the branch below us, and you fell out of the tree," he explained. "I continued to the top, returned to brag to you, but you didn't move, so I stripped you of your jacket and burnt the damn thing."

Naruto stared at him, mouth hanging wide open.

Sasuke picked his pirate hat up off the ground, brushed some dirt off it, and then placed it back onto his head.

"Now, imagine what I would have done if you had damaged my hat during our fight."

Naruto turned to look at Sakura, pleadingly.

Sakura frowned at him. "You're still not moving until Master Kakashi gets to check on you."

"But Sakura," Naruto whined. "I just want to maim him."

"No."

"What if I promise to only maim him a little?"

"No, Naruto."

"Only make him eat through a straw for a month?"

". . ."

"Okay, okay, a week tops."

"No means no."

Naruto sighed. "Sakura, you're no fun this morning."

Sasuke blinked. "Speaking of fun, I saw Tobi this morning."

Naruto jumped and stared at Sasuke, while Sakura stared over interestedly. Sakura was interested as to why 'Tobi' was in Wave, while Naruto was concerned. There should have been no reason for that man to have turned up here, and he was probably following Naruto around. Naruto wondered if it was because they were both from the future, and he was checking in to see if Naruto had learned anything new.

Naruto frowned and folded his arms. Of course he knew nothing more about their situation, he was on a genin team so it was not like he could travel far to gain any information. He then considered if it was because Obito had discovered something interesting, or very helpful.

Suddenly, Naruto was very interested.

"What happened?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke reached into his pocket and removed an envelope. "He handed me a letter, and then chased away this young girl that turned up." He handed the envelope over to Sakura. "It was amusing, to say the least. Girl turns up, looking for herbs, Tobi runs at her, flailing his arms, she screams and takes off with Tobi in pursuit. I must say, I've seen more normal things."

'_Young girl?'_ Naruto thought. _'Could he be referring to Haku?'_

Sakura handed the envelope to Naruto. "He's your friend," she said. "So I guess that you should be the one to read it."

Naruto nodded, opened the envelope and pulled out a folded letter. He read it for a short moment, before he started frowning, and tilted his head sideways.

"What is this?" he asked, making both Sakura and Sasuke curious. "Did. . . Did he right that character _backwards_?"

Sasuke took the letter from Naruto, tried to read it, also began frowning, and then turned the paper upside down. "Is this written upside down?" he asked.

Sakura procured the letter from Sasuke. She also began to frown very quickly. "Is this some form of code?" she wondered. "Hang on, I might be able to crack this. . ."

"Yeah, Sakura, use that big head of yours!" Naruto called out, quickly quietening down when the girl shook her fist at him in warning.

Sakura left the area in search for a pencil and paper, leaving Sasuke to care for Naruto. Naruto glared at Sasuke, and Sasuke glared right back at him. Naruto clenched his fists as he watched Sasuke adjust the pirate hat once more. He decided that he was going to get a hold of that damn hat and destroy in the most destructive way possible.

Or, he could use his too-advanced-to-be-used rasengan on Sasuke, causing them both to catch on fire. Well, Naruto would have to hold onto Sasuke for that, or dogpile him in clones. Yes, clones could work.

Naruto was too busy grinning to notice Sasuke get to his feet and point at the tree that they both fought in.

"Look up there," he said.

Naruto stopped grinning and did as he was told. He stared over at Sasuke's appointed tree, and then gaped. At the very top, waving like a flag in the wind, was Naruto's orange jacket.

Naruto slowly turned to face Sasuke, his face growing redder and redder with anger. Sasuke only smirked, before removing his hat for a bow.

"When you make it to the top of the tree, then you can get your jacket back."

Naruto clenched and unclenched his fists continuously, grinding his teeth as he was doing so.

'_Sakura, I'm sorry, but I can't be held accountable for what I'm about to do,'_ Naruto thought.

Naruto jumped to his feet and gave a roar, before charging at the other boy.

"I'm going to kill you!"

Sasuke's eyes widened, having expected Naruto to have obeyed Sakura's orders, and he also got to his feet. He forced chakra into his feet and fled up a tree. Naruto did the same and followed close behind. Sasuke began to jump tree to tree, almost grinning over the fun he was having. Naruto followed, furious.

"Quit moving and let me tear you and your stupid hat to pieces!"

5

Sakura wrote furiously onto a spare piece of paper. She had promised to decipher the letter, and she was going to make sure that she would persevere and finish. It was exceptionally difficult, and she was pulling at her hair. Somehow the man had managed to mix his hiragana and katakana, and not in just sticking to certain words. No, halfway through one word, he would switch the alphabet that he was using. Half of it seemed to be archaic, and the rest of it written in slang. Though what was what was a lot harder to figure out.

Sakura picked up the paper, swallowed her pride, and headed over to Kakashi.

Kakashi saw her coming, and raised his hand in greeting. "Oh, Sakura, what can I do you for?"

"This Master Kakashi," she said, holding out the letter and her translation. "I'm really stuck on this part."

Kakashi took the note off the girl, and began to read it. He soon began to frown, and he tilted his head sideways. "Is this character written _backwards_?"

6

When Sakura returned to where she had left the boys, she was slightly surprised (and angry) to find the area empty. She had the translated note in her hand, all finished for them to read, but neither of the boys were there. Angry, she punched one of the trees, and took off in a separate direction.

She ran through the forest, before opting to travel through the trees for better view of the area around her. She leapt from tree branch to tree branch, searching hard. She had instructed them to stay in the one area, and she had not even been gone too long, but the boys could not follow such a simple order. She had a feeling that she knew what had happened, making it difficult for her to figure out which teammate that she should be angrier at. Sasuke, for goading Naruto, or Naruto, for ignoring her advice on waiting to be checked medically.

She soon caught sight of the boys by one of the small lakes. Naruto was diving and slashing at Sasuke, furious, while Sasuke occasionally side-stepped out of the way, before smacking Naruto somewhere on his torso. They were waist deep in the water, but did not seem to care at all.

Sakura stood on the edge, folded her arms, and glared at the two boys.

"Excuse me," she said, causing the boys to stop and stare over to her. "What do you two think that you are doing?"

"Sparring," Sasuke offered.

"Trying to drown him," said Naruto.

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"I've translated the letter for you guys," she said, holding up her translation.

Both boys wandered out of the water to stand near the girl. They looked at her expectantly, before turning their attentions to the letter.

**Hello Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke! Tobi is fine and is working hard. Tobi is trying to find a way to return to his and Naruto's own time, but it is difficult for Tobi. Tobi is very sorry for such a bad boy mistake. Also, Tobi is working hard on dancing. Tobi's dancing has improved, but Tobi still needs to get better with music. Tobi also heard that you are working hard in Wave. Now, Tobi's a good boy, and this may sound crazy, but can Tobi join your Wave mission maybe?**

**Love Tobi.**

They stood back and glanced among each other, as if daring someone to speak. Sasuke, though, was the first to say something.

"I don't know what it was about that last sentence, but it really pissed me off," he said, glaring.

Naruto shook his head. Honestly, he thought that Obito (although crazy) was meant to be somewhat intelligent.

"Where's the original?" Naruto asked.

"Master Kakashi wanted to keep it," Sakura explained. "I really could see no harm in him doing so."

7

Ibiki Morino had just finished with what he so affectionately referred to as a 'patient', and he was on his way to the break room for a good cup of tea. While he was on his way there, he was caught by a younger member of the T&I group, one that Ibiki had personally appointed the "messenger boy".

"Sir," the young man said, bowing politely. "We've just received a note from one of our jounin, a Mister Kakashi Hatake. He has addressed it to you."

Ibiki hesitated, almost about to refuse the letter. He had been receiving several letters as of late, and they were mostly all from chuunin. Those letters would carry on about Ibiki's unfortunate involvement with the now infamous door incident. Originally, it had just been two chuunin and a class of academy brats that had known, but the news of it had spread like wildfire, and now almost everyone had known. The chuunin, in some bout of suicidal bravery, had taken to teasing Ibiki about it, and they even started snickering whenever he would enter a room.

Kotetsu and Izumo were by far the most 'suicidal' of the chuunin, going as far to bring up the door whenever the opportunity arose for it.

Unlike the chuunin, the jounin were smarter about how they went about things. They were smarter, sneakier, but were just as childish. They had managed to steal the very door from the academy and dump it outside his house. With the door, they had left fake adoption papers for one Sasuke Uchiha. There was a splinter taped to where the door had apparently signed the papers in agreement.

The ANBU, though, were even worse. They had some kind of sick and twisted sense of humour, and made it well known by somehow filling Ibiki's living quarters to the brim (literally, not figuratively) with love letters all addressed to him from the door. They also sent fanfiction of Ibiki and the door, plenty of it, everything rated from 'family friendly' to 'it-would-probably-be-a-very-bad-idea-to-show-this-to-anyone-with-a-weak-stomach'. In fact, Ibiki was positive that half of the fanfictions would be illegal in several countries.

Ibiki hesitated because Kakashi was both of the worst, jounin and (ex)ANBU. Not only that, but the man also had Sasuke Uchiha, the cause of everything involving the damn door, on his team of troglodytes.

Gathering courage, Ibiki sighed and held out his hand. "Show me," he said.

Messenger-boy reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small canister. He opened it and removed two rolled up pieces of paper, which he gave to the man before him. He bowed deeply and left.

Ibiki looked at the first of the two notes. "Mr Ibiki Morino, I am aware that you have been selected as the first examination proctor for this year's coming up chuunin exams. I have sent you a code that, should it be used to replace the old code in the exam, would certainly stump those retaking the test, forcing them to actually work searching for their answers," he read. "Yours sincerely, Kakashi Hatake."

A sigh of relief escaped him as the note was so much better than what he had been expecting. Then Ibiki lifted the second note to look at. He quickly frowned.

"Is that written upside-down?"

* * *

I'm sorry, I HAD to do it.


	13. Chapter 13

Naruto grumbled as he scaled the tree again, trying to get his jacket back. He would get close, swipe just short, and then would lose his grip on the tree. It was mostly by pure luck that he was not dead yet, and even more luck that he had the self-control to not kill Sasuke. Whenever Naruto slipped, he would either catch a branch or push the correct amount of chakra back into his feet and catch the trunk.

He slipped and fell back down, just catching himself on one of the lower branches.

He was working alone, so he had to be extra careful as there would be no-one there to supply him with any first aid should anything go terribly wrong.

He cursed as he stared up at where his jacket was tied. Naruto had a sneaking suspicion to begin with, and was now positive that it was true. Somehow, he had gotten weaker than how he was back in the old timeline. Both he and Sasuke should have both been working on climbing, but Sasuke had reached the top a while ago, which did not make sense. Naruto was angry and baffled. How he had become weaker than before was completely beyond him, and he had been doing mostly fine up until just before they were granted the Wave mission.

Briefly he wondered if the weakening was caused by his overconfidence in his previous abilities (from back when he was first experiencing this time), his comparing of his normal power (his real seventeen year old power) to how he was currently faring, or if the time-travelling had done something to him.

What if Obito had purposefully done something to him to ensure success away from the blond's meddling?

What if?

What if?

Naruto stared down at the ground from where he was seated in the tree. He stared around, half hoping to see Haku wander into the area, but knowing that he most likely would not see the boy as he had apparently already been and was promptly chased off by Obito. Well, Naruto highly suspected that the young girl that Sasuke had referred to had been Haku, but there was also a small part of him that hoped that it really had just been an unfortunate young girl.

Naruto frowned. If it had been Haku, why had Obito chased him off? Certainly Obito did not know who Haku was, and if Obito just acted like an idiot, like he normally did around others, then there would have been no problem anyway. The man gained nothing for chasing Haku away, and yet he had done so (in an amusing fashion to boot, if Sasuke was to be believed).

Perhaps Obito was just playing the role of overly-energetic idiot just a little too enthusiastically.

Strangely, though, there was also a part of Naruto that did not agree with that. There was a part of him that wondered if Obito had somehow known about Haku and had behaved that way on purpose. After all, Obito was strangely in Wave with them and for reasons unknown, though Naruto highly suspected that it may have been for observational reasons.

He wondered if Obito was doing his hardest to prevent him from growing stronger.

"Still haven't managed to climb the tree? I'd call it impressive if it wasn't so sad."

Speak of the devil. . .

"Hello, bastard," Naruto said with a sigh. He glanced over to the tree closest to him.

Obito was sitting casually on the branch nearest to his own, one leg lazily crossing the other, back leaning against the trunk, and arms resting behind his head. Overall, he somehow managed to piss Naruto off.

"Want me to fetch that flag for you?" the man asked in a half-serious, half-amused tone.

He was teasing.

"It's a jacket, not a flag," Naruto corrected him, annoyed. "And I can get it down without your help, thank you."

"Oh?" Obito looked the boy up and down. "I can see how well you're doing."

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, not wanting to play. The good thing was that Obito was not acting like Tobi at the moment.

"Can't two old friends just have a friendly chat?"

Naruto snorted. "You said that word again," he said, "the one that doesn't mean what you think it means."

Obito chuckled. "When did you get so grumpy?"

"Why are you here?"

"To talk—"

"I meant in Wave."

Obito paused for a moment, before shrugging. "There's danger about, so I decided to follow. . . I'm also bored, and this seemed like a more amusing thing to do."

He did not bring up the real reason, though, believing that Naruto did not need to hear it. No, Naruto did not need to know that he had been keeping a close eye on the boy ever since the major disturbance.

Whatever the disturbance was, it was dangerous and influential, and was something that Obito wanted to keep well away from Naruto. There could be. . . _interesting_ results if whatever it was got a hold on the blond haired boy. In doing so, it would most likely just end up causing Obito plenty of trouble in the long run.

Thankfully, whatever it was seemed to have gone back to sleep, though the small spikes of activity were still around.

"More amusing than what you're supposed to be doing?" Naruto asked, cocking an eyebrow. "More amusing than trying to figure out how to fix _your_ mistake?"

Obito removed both arms from behind his head and held them up in defence.

"Hey, I've been working really hard on that," he said.

"And what have you found out so far, then?"

"That it's very difficult to find others that mess around with space/time techniques, or even those that mess around with space/time in general."

Naruto scowled at him, and turned his head away in a huff. He bet that Obito was just being lazy.

"So, have you thought about what to do if we can't return?"

Naruto blinked; the question had been unexpected.

"I guess, uh, I'd try and save people," he confessed. "Why?"

Obito shrugged. "No real reason other than me being very bored." He tilted his head slightly to the left. "That's very noble of you, though."

Naruto almost choked on his own saliva. Did a 'bad-guy' just compliment him? He had half expected that Obito would reply somewhere along the lines of how there was no point as he was going to kill them all anyway, or something akin to that.

Kill them all, trap them all in a genjutsu, it was all the same to Naruto now.

"Umm, thanks?"

"I have to be nice sometimes," Obito confessed with a shrug. "Besides, you remind me a lot of me when I was your age. . . current-your age, not original-your age."

Naruto scowled again. "I'd prefer that you wouldn't compare us," he grumbled.

Obito nodded. "Yeah, I lied a little; I was MUCH more talented then than you are now."

Naruto jumped up and shook his fist at the man. "I'm plenty talented!" he shouted. "I bet I'm a million times more talented than you were!"

Obito chuckled and sat forward. "Is that so?"

"Of course it is!" the boy yelled. "In fact, I bet I'm even stronger than you right now!" He pointed up to the top of the tree. "I'll race you to the top to prove that I'm better than you!"

". . . Did. . . did you just challenge me?"

"One-two-three-GO!" Naruto called, having ignored the man's question, and he took off up the tree.

Obito remained where he was, a little confused, and he watched the boy run vertically up the tree trunk. He was not too sure how to take it, being challenged by a child that was barely even a one-sixteenth of his own strength with the child thinking that they could win. It was absurd and. . .

. . . Hilarious.

Obito started snickering, then began chuckling, then began laughing, and eventual started guffawing. He held onto his sides, feeling pain in his ribs from laughing, and he had to adjust his seating so that he would not fall out of the tree. His body was shaking all over, and his eyes were tearing up, but he just could not stop. Every time that he thought that he was about to stop, his mind replayed it and he burst out into more laughter with renewed vigour. He smacked the tree branch with his foot, and leaned back, still unable to stop.

Naruto paused and slipped onto the branch just below him, having been 'interrupted' by Obito's laughter. He stared down at the man, thoroughly confused, and he briefly wondered if this was a good laugh or a crazy laugh. He quickly ruled out crazy when he saw Obito wrap his arms around his sides and start shaking uncontrollably. He even cocked an eyebrow when the masked man started stamping his left foot on the tree, which was a gesture that he had certainly never expected.

Well, he had never expected the crazy old guy to crack up good-naturedly either.

"Oi, are you alright?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Why was the man laughing, anyway? Naruto had no clue.

Naruto waited a while, having not received any response other than a loud snort from the man, and began absently picking the dirt out from underneath his fingernails with a kunai. He listened as Obito's laughter gradually died down and finally ended with a satisfied sigh, before pocketing the kunai.

"Oi, still sane?" he asked, more about how Obito felt after the laughter rather than his mental state beforehand.

"Much lighter," Obito replied, using a much happier tone.

It was a tone that Naruto had never heard coming from the man before, not even when he was pretending to be Tobi.

It was friendly and relaxed, and that made Naruto uncomfortable.

"What was all that about, anyway?"

Obito shrugged, and casually leaned back on his branch again. "Who knows," he said. After a pause, he continued. "I have a theory that the Uzumaki clan actually have a bloodline limit."

Naruto instantly perked up, listening intently. A bloodline limit? Like the Uchiha clan and their blasted sharingan? He was fascinated, thinking over all the cool types of bloodline limits that he could have, and was excited over the idea of having one.

"How so? How so?" he asked, barely able to contain his excitement.

Obito gave a small nod. "There would be two abilities within it, a lesser ability and an advanced ability. . ."

"Y-yeah?"

"The lesser ability, though, would be just as powerful as the advanced one."

"Is that so?! That's so cool!"

Naruto was on the edge of his seat, grinning in anticipation.

"The lesser ability is the ability to annoy the hell out of anyone."

Naruto stumbled. "W-what? That's not cool. . ."

"And the advanced ability is the ability to befriend anyone."

Naruto grew silent and just stared at the man below him. Was Obito seriously just insinuating that Naruto was befriending him? Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. That. . . that just was not right, not at all. There was no way that could happen.

"You're not claiming that we're becoming friends, are you?" he asked, suspiciously.

There was a small pause, before Obito snorted. "Not exactly, I was just telling you a theory, is all."

Naruto remained unconvinced. "But the way you worded it. . ."

"I'm noting that you don't completely piss me off, despite your annoying attitude, is all," Obito explained. "We're nowhere near friend level, mind you, and I will gladly kill you, without a second thought, as soon as we return back to our time." He stared at the ground floor below him. "I won't lie, it is nice having someone mostly sane to talk to about this time-travel crap, though."

"Only mostly sane?" Naruto questioned under his breath.

Somehow, that was just insulting coming from Obito.

Then Naruto scoffed. "I wish I was as privileged as you, there," he said, gaining Obito's attention. "Sakura seems to be losing it, you're you, and I don't think Sasuke ever had it in the first place. . . that, or he's been messing with me this entire time. . ." Naruto paused, thinking it over. "I probably set him off on a revenge-streak against me back when I tackled him."

"Must have been quite an impressive tackle if it's causing him to seek vengeance on you," Obito mused. He was not even going to bother arguing the fact that Naruto had listed him as completely bonkers.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I tackled him from a roof and then hugged him." He paused. "Then I screamed in his ear about how I was from the future, and then I ran away." He left out the part about he rambled on over how much he missed Sasuke, on the account that it was too embarrassing to recount. "Also, although I still don't know exactly what happened, I'm pretty sure that whatever involved that door incident was also meant to involve me. Sadly for Sasuke, I was not there, and he ended up suffering, so he's probably trying to get me back for that too."

"Something happened with a door?" Obito asked, quizzically.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, and apparently it was traumatising for all those that were involved and watching. I've got no idea what happened, though."

Obito sat up and scratched his head. "What the hell could involve a door and traumatise anyone?" He folded his arms. "Do you think that they'll tell me if I ask politely?"

Naruto shook his head. "They won't talk about it to me at all, but apparently Sakura's turned the experience into some kind of genjutsu. You could ask her to place it on you; I've already asked but she said no."

Obito folded his arms. "If she denied you, she might deny me. . ."

Naruto snorted. "Probably for the better, in your case."

Obito did not reply, but just continued to stare at the boy. The longer that he spent time with the boy, the less hostile the atmosphere became. He was not sure whether that just came from eventually enjoying the other's company, or if it just came from giving up with the other around. He highly considered the latter, given how Naruto would instantly become hostile once again after they had a break from each other.

He narrowed his eyes; so, the best way to get Naruto to trust him would be to remain a constant annoyance for the boy and not leave him alone long enough for him to get used to Obito's absence.

He had to get the boy to trust him; it was the only way to get his plan to work.

"Quit staring at me, you're starting to freak me out," Naruto grumbled, bringing Obito's attention back into the present.

Obito shook his head. "I wasn't staring at you," he lied, "I was sizing you up."

Naruto grew a little wary. "Sizing me up for what?"

Obito glanced around him, and his attention eventually settled on Naruto's jacket.

"I'm accepting you on your tree climbing challenge," he said, glancing back to Naruto. "I was sizing you up to see how well I'd fare."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "And how would you fare?"

Obito smirked under his mask. "I'll make it to the top a hundred times before you manage just the one."

Naruto's eyes flashed with anger, and he bit the inside of his cheek. Instead of a grimace, though, his face formed a smirk.

"I'll make you eat those words."

"I'm so scared."

"You'd better be, because, when I win, you're going to be my personal slave for a week."

Obito snorted. The brat was getting too far ahead of himself. "And if I win?"

Naruto's smirk grew, forming a sly grin. "You won't."

Obito began to frown. "Let's go, then; I'll choose my prize after I win."

"One."

"Two"

"Three."

"GO!" they both shouted and took off up their respective trees.

Naruto dug into his weaponry pouch and removed a few shuriken. He glanced over to where Obito was climbing, noting that, although Naruto had started the race higher up, the masked man was closer to the goal. Instead of getting annoyed, Naruto grinned slyly. He had expected Obito, a much more experienced ninja, to do much better than him. The problem was, though, that Naruto was also ninja, and that meant no playing fair.

Naruto hurled the shuriken at the man, lodging them in the tree above and below him. Obito jumped backwards a little and swiftly pulled out his own kunai to knock away the shuriken aimed for his body. Naruto pulled a face as soon as Obito glanced over to him, as if he was asking why the blond had thought it funny to attack his opponent.

He watched Obito remain standing still, just staring, before picking out two of the shuriken and continuing to climb. The masked man leapt over the shuriken in front of him, and continued up towards the top of the tree.

Naruto snickered; although Obito was still ahead of him, the shuriken distraction had allowed him to catch up a fair bit. In fact, while the masked man had been standing still and staring (probably confused, Naruto hoped) Naruto had managed to reach and surpass him. Of course, then Obito had pulled out two of the shuriken, jumped over the ones in front of him, and continued up the tree at an amazing pace. Naruto slipped, but managed to mostly hold his place, while Obito was having no trouble at all.

Naruto formed the ram seal. "Shadow clone jutsu," he said.

Two clones appeared either side of him, before they leapt over to Obito's tree to chase after the older man. The original Naruto slipped again, having lost a little of his focus, but caught himself and continued up his tree.

The two clones charged up at Obito and, when they deemed that they were close enough, one took hold of the other and hurled him up to the man. While one clone flew upwards, the other clone slipped and fell to the forest floor, dispelling in a large poof of smoke.

The original Naruto winced; ouch.

Obito took a moment to glance behind himself, and almost did a double-take when he saw the Naruto clone flying towards him. Both he and the clone hurled weapons at each other and, while the clone was hit and dispelled, he caught the other's kunai.

The original Naruto grinned again.

Then the kunai started to fizzle, and Obito stared at it, before throwing it down to the floor. The weapon had an exploding tag connected to it, and it exploded just before it hit the ground.

Naruto took the distracted second to throw more kunai with attached exploding tags over to where the man was. Obito, instead of catching them, deflected them with his own kunai and did not even have to pause in his running. Although unsuccessful, one tag did explode uncomfortably close to the man, so Naruto was happy.

"So, you don't want an honest race?" Obito called down to Naruto.

Naruto continued to grin, and formed two more shadow clones. "I never said that I would play fair, that was your interpretation!"

"Indeed," Obito replied, before forming a number of handseals. "But you'll regret that." He lifted his mask a little, just enough to expose his mouth. "Fire style: great fireball technique!"

"Hey, you— Oh, shit!"

Naruto jumped backwards and just barely dodged getting burned. He could feel his hair and eyebrows sizzling, though, meaning that he had not been fast enough. Instantly, he glared up to Obito, continuing to climb around the damaged part of the tree.

"What the hell was that?!" he shouted. "That could've hit me!"

"You started it!" Obito shot back, pausing for a moment to glare under his mask (which he shifted back into place).

The two Naruto clones had managed to avoid the fireball by switching trees at the last moment, and they also performed the act of tossing the other. One fell and dispelled upon hitting a branch, and the other flew forward.

"Didn't work on me before, won't work on me now," Obito warned, about to throw a weapon.

He hesitated upon noticing that the clone formed a handseal.

"What are you. . ."

"Sexy jutsu!"

In an explosion of smoke, there was a flying and very naked young woman where the clone had once been.

Obito stumbled, and Naruto burst out into laughter. He was starting to catch up again.

"Master Obitoooooo!" the female clone called, outstretched arms ready to grab the masked man on contact.

Obito choked under his mask, before swiftly lifting it a little again and burning the clone to a crisp (well, until it dispelled) just a second or two before he would have been caught.

He brought his mask back into place and pointed over to Naruto. "W-what the hell?!"

Naruto roared with laughter, barely catching himself when he slipped again. He stopped on a branch, just a little further down from where Obito was on his tree, fell to his knees, and slammed his fist down on the branch while he continued to laugh. Tears started pouring from his eyes, and he lowered his forehead down, still giggling.

"That. . . That was my grand, ultimate technique!" he managed, standing back up. "Sexy jutsu, where you make every guy feel just a little special."

He blew Obito a kiss, before exploding into laughter once more.

Obito just stood there, staring and unspeaking. He then turned and began to walk up, not even bothering to run.

When Naruto finally managed to calm down, he had sadly found that he had lost the race.

He did, however, manage to creep out Obito, and that was certainly better than any win.

However, now he could not wait to show Obito his harem technique.

1

When Naruto had returned that night, he had been bruised, dirty, sweaty, and still chuckling from before. Back climbing, he had finally managed to reach the top of the tree and reclaim his jacket. Obito had mentioned that he would be thinking about what Naruto owed him for winning, before leaving, and Naruto had managed to climb down the tree mostly without any troubles.

He entered Tazuna's home around dinner time, possibly just after, and gained several odd stares from everyone else. He met all the stares with a wide grin and a thumbs up.

"Reached the top," he boasted.

"Damn," Sasuke grumbled, staring at the jacket.

When the next morning rolled around, all three genin were able to accompany Tazuna and their teacher to the bridge. While on the way there, Naruto and Sakura talked excitedly, and Naruto also talked about his incredible race against 'Tobi', as well as just how wonderful he, himself, had been throughout. Sakura had listened intently, starry-eyed, while Sasuke had listened in, occasionally muttering something about how he did not believe a single word that escaped Naruto's mouth.

Naruto, however, chose to ignore Sasuke for a bit; he was still irritated about his jacket, and doubted that he would be able to hold himself back from punching the dark haired boy in the jaw.

Thankfully, though, Sasuke was no longer wearing the pirate hat. If Sakura was to be believed (which Naruto saw absolutely no harm in doing) Kakashi had confiscated the offending item and burned it. Upon hearing that, Naruto believed that he could kiss the man out of sheer gratitude. But because the thought of actually kissing his instructor brought up disturbing images in his mind, Naruto opted for just being a good and polite student instead. After all, Kakashi certainly deserved some kind of reward.

Sasuke was probably also a little sore over the loss of his bloody hat.

When they finally arrived at the bridge, they were greeted to the sight of Tazuna's unconscious colleagues. Tazuna stared around in horror, Kakashi braced himself for a fight, Sakura let out a gasp, and Sasuke halted mid-step. Naruto, who had never seen all of this the first time around because he had been sleeping in, stumbled. He quickly tried to regain his composure, as it would be unsightly for him, the team's awesome teenage time-traveller, to be stunned by what he was seeing.

'_Well,'_ he thought, grimacing. _'I've certainly seen worse before.'_

In the back of his mind, Naruto could not help but to feel that he was forgetting something, but he swiftly pushed that out of the way as a thick mist descended upon them.

2

Obito sat in a tree, back up against the trunk, thinking about what had happened the day before. He felt a little ashamed, getting carried away like that in a stupid race to the top of a tree, and for allowing his competitive streak to show. He had not known what had come over him exactly, even though he had agreed to the race as just a cover-up for thinking over how he could convince Naruto over to his side.

It was unlike him, it was childish, and it was something that he had not done (well, seriously, that is) since he had been a child himself.

And then there had been that horrible technique that the boy had used. He considered just how shameful such a jutsu was, and just how below him, a responsible and serious adult, it was. He ignored the part of his mind that argued that he would have loved to have known such a skill back when he was a kid. Admittedly, although shameful, it would have been fun to have used on Kakashi.

He snorted; he would just have to kill Naruto extra humiliatingly later.

He stood to leave for his 'control room', thinking about how he was going to research more on the strange disturbances, but paused when he heard talking coming from below him.

He stared down from his branch and noticed two men, samurai-imitating thugs, that were discussing how they were going to go about kidnapping someone. One wore a beanie and a jacket, while the other went shirtless, supposedly to show of his 'manly' scars.

"Kidnapping someone?" Obito mused, loud enough to gain both attentions of the men. "That doesn't sound very noble."

"What the hell do you want?!" the beanie-wearer asked, hand flying to his sword.

"Looks like we need to show our guest that it's not nice to eavesdrop on us," the shirtless man sneered, also reaching for his sword.

Obito tilted his head in contemplation.

Well, he did have some frustrations to work off, anyway.

3

When Zabuza and Haku had attacked, Kakashi had ordered both Naruto and Sakura to go on the defensive for Tazuna, while he took care of the dangerous man, and Sasuke took care of the ice-wielder. He had set both Naruto and Sakura to guard Tazuna with the reasoning that, if either Zabuza or Haku lashed out unexpectedly, there would be a lesser chance of the man being harmed.

When he had laid eyes on Zabuza again, he had been slightly surprised by the dark rings under his eyes. He wondered if the man had been stressing, or just training himself into exhaustion. Perhaps Zabuza was even sick, but there was no reason for Kakashi to care about that. They were just going to fight each other, and hope they would be the one left standing.

Kakashi readied for an attack, but paused when Zabuza sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"May we make this quick, Kakashi?" he asked, sounding shattered. "I didn't rest very well and am quite irritable at the moment."

Kakashi almost stumbled over his words. "I beg your pardon?"

Zabuza sighed again, reaching for his sword but, otherwise, not doing much else. "You should congratulate your brat on that genjutsu, Kakashi. Now, I've seen many a horrible things, but that had to be the one that stands out the most." He gave a slight shudder. "Seriously, that was messed up, and that's coming from me."

Kakashi blinked. "Will do," he said, with a nod. "They are a talented bunch, these three, and are quite eccentric too."

Zabuza nodded. "The girl had the gall to slap me, of all things, Haku caught the door-boy wearing a pirate hat, and the blonde had the cheek to claim that he would befriend me."

"Door-boy?" Kakashi repeated, feeling a little left out of the loop in something. Sadly, he was normally out of the loop anyway, give his general dislike of spending time with others other than his young team. It was also then that he realised that he preferred spending time with his weird genin than with anyone else.

Dear lord, what was wrong with him?

He was getting used to them, that was it.

"The girl is our lovely young genius, the smartest kunoichi of her class, and the 'door-boy' is our number one rookie, also a member of a powerful and prestigious clan. Lastly, the blond is our number one unpredictable ninja, also our apparent resident time-traveller. Those are the three that make up my team." Kakashi grinned.

"Time-traveller?" Zabuza repeated, unable to help the slightly shocked tone that crept into his voice.

"Time-traveller," Kakashi confirmed.

Zabuza lifted his sword up off his back, and he held it out in front of him.

Kakashi prepared a kunai.

"How about we get started before one of us starts to greatly regret talking with the other," Zabuza offered.

"Of course," Kakashi agreed.

Although, Kakashi did have the feeling that Zabuza was more referring to himself than the silver-haired jounin.

4

Obito stared down at the unconscious, bloody, and bruised men at his feet with disdain. He was bored, and they had not even amused him in the slightest. He had gone in knowing that there was going to be no challenge, but he still came out very disappointed. He wondered if he should just kill them and be done with it, then go and research (not sulk) in his 'control room'.

Nah, he decided against killing them.

After all, they would just disappear anyway.

He began to walk away, but soon slowed to a halt.

"I wonder if what Naruto's doing is more exciting than this," he mused.

He was, indeed, very bored.

5

Naruto stood beside Sakura, bored, and watching Sasuke being torn by needles in Haku's ice dome. He sighed, thinking over how Sasuke must have been having fun while he and Sakura were set with the uneventful job of guarding the terrified bridge builder. He watched Sasuke and Haku occasionally pause to say something, before they resumed their rather one-sided battle.

Play-battle, he reminded himself.

To the back of them was the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, which seemed to have finally gotten underway. Naruto could see them (slightly) slashing with their weapons and dodging with their impressive speeds. He was left thinking that Sakura, given that she had been guarding the bridge builder back in his time too, really had the best 'seat' to view the fights. Too far in either direction, and the mist would make it too difficult to see what was going on.

Well, despite being in the ultimate spectator's position, Naruto decided that he would much rather join in one of the fights. Kakashi would most likely be able to handle Zabuza, considering how well he did in Naruto's time, and Sasuke would just be played with and humiliated by Haku. He wanted to join Sasuke in the dome again, and he reasoned that if his Sakura had been able to keep Tazuna alive then the current Sakura should have no (or, actually, less) difficulty in achieving the same result.

Master Kakashi's orders be damned, Naruto was bored.

"Sakura," Naruto whispered, and he poked the girl's arm.

Sakura stopped shivering a little, and glanced at him. "What?"

Naruto inclined his head in Sasuke's direction. "How about we help Prince Charming with his fight?"

The girl looked over towards the ice dome, paled a little, and then nodded. "Please," she said.

Naruto grinned. "Let's go!"

The both of them took Tazuna's hands and led him away from Kakashi's fight.

"Is there a reason that we're moving?" Tazuna asked, quite shaken.

"We'd like to help our friend," Naruto confessed, watching Sakura nod her head. "It would also probably be safer for you to be away from Master Kakashi and Zabuza while they fight."

"I. . . I hope Sasuke's alright," Sakura said, obviously worried.

"He's fine," Naruto said. "I'm going to sneak into the dome and help him."

Sakura halted, effectively stopping both Tazuna and Naruto from moving as well.

"Why you?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. "I want to help him, too."

Naruto blinked, a little bit surprised at just how quickly Sakura had managed to change from worried and frightened to challenging and strong.

"Sasuke could use my help just as much as you," she argued, glaring. "However, just because you're from the future you think that you can sweep in here and be the hero!" She stood up straight, puffed out her chest, and pointed at herself with her right thumb. "I'm just as awesome as you are, so don't you forget it!"

Naruto stared at her, before breaking out into laughter. "Alright," he said, grinning widely. "Tell you what, I'll sneak Sasuke out for you, and I'll take on Haku while you get a new guard-duty partner. Okay?"

Sakura grew thoughtful. "But I wanted to fight too," she whined.

Naruto stumbled. "You're happy to give up spending time with Sasuke to help fight?" he asked.

The twelve-year old Sakura of his time. . .

"But of course!" Sakura said, folding her arms and grinning. "I figured that Sasuke would be more impressed with me if I help fight than if I stand around without showing off my potential."

Current Sakura was very confident. . .

"Besides," she continued, "someone has to try and show you up."

Naruto just stared at her, unable to say anything. He had no idea how he was supposed to react, and could only go through all the differences between his Sakura and this Sakura. As he continued to compare the two, he suddenly reached a horrifying conclusion.

The two Sakuras were not actually that different; current Sakura just acted a lot closer to her older counterpart than to the younger one that she should have been.

"Oh, god. . ." Naruto said under his breath, and his eyes widened.

Sakura was maturing much faster, and that may not necessarily be a good thing.

Before anything else could be said, Naruto jumped as he saw Sakura switch her focus to the dome, pull out a kunai, and hurl the weapon. The kunai was easily caught by Haku and, before the boy could even think of retaliating, Sakura began hurling more weaponry at him. Haku was, sadly, left on blocking the weapons, and Naruto was left staring, even recognising some of the weapons to be ones that had mysteriously vanished from his own collection quite a few weeks prior.

Instead of calling the girl out on it, though, Naruto took the opportunity to sneak away into the ice dome with Sasuke. He saw Sasuke jump when he saw him, but the dark-haired boy turned his gaze away to continue watching Sakura's metal assault.

"I wondered where a few of my shuriken went," Sasuke muttered. He glanced back to Naruto. "And you have no idea how stupid you are."

Naruto blinked, before remembering something. "That's right," he said. "You would've preferred me to attack the outside instead of sneaking in here to help you."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes a little. "Okay, not as stupid," the boy said, "but still pretty damn idiotic."

"You wouldn't have me any other way," Naruto shot back, grinning.

Sasuke huffed.

"Anyway," he said. "What's the strategy here?"

They heard Sakura give a scream and Haku had finally reached a point in which he could attack back. Unsurprisingly, the girl's barrage had ceased, telling the boys that she had foolishly allowed herself to run out of weapons.

Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"We are fighting Haku," he explained. "He's a powerful kid with a bloodline limit that cost him big time—"

Naruto was not given time to finish as Haku had thrown a few senbon his way. He rolled out of the way of them, and grumbled to himself over not being given the chance to finish talking first.

"You appear to be quite knowledgeable," Haku said, holding up more senbon. "An information gatherer, perhaps?" He pulled back his arm, ready to throw.

"Time-traveller," Naruto replied, causing Haku to pause.

The ice-user glanced over to Sasuke, as if asking for some kind of reassurance that Naruto was crazy or joking.

Instead, Sasuke nodded. "Time-traveller," he confirmed.

Haku glanced between the two, before shaking his head and attacking once more.

Naruto and Sasuke did their best to avoid the needles, but being attacked from around all sides made it next to impossible. When Haku became stationary again, both boys looked to be imitating hedgehogs.

"So, how do we beat him?" Sasuke asked, hissing as he yanked one of the senbon out from his shoulder.

"Gently," Naruto replied, pulling his collection of senbon out as casually as one would pull out splinters. "He's not a bad guy, you know."

Haku remained silent and watching.

"Not a bad guy?" Sasuke asked, shooting the blond boy and incredulous stare. "He's attacking us."

Naruto finished with his collection, and moved on to help Sasuke pull out his. "He was recruited by Zabuza, and I'm pretty sure he's just keeping us busy," he explained, enjoying the pain that he was causing to Sasuke just a little too much. "I don't really remember all of the details, but he's had a horrible past of pain and suffering—"

Sasuke scoffed. "There's only one way for Haku to experience true pain and suffering."

Naruto paused, waiting for Sasuke to continue, but frowned in light confusion when the boy did not say anything else.

"Hang on, you're not going to bring it up, this time?" he asked, quite surprised.

"Bring what up," Sasuke asked, hissing again when Naruto yanked out another needle from his back.

"You know, the sharinga—. . . Oh ohoho, you clever little son of a kunoichi. . ."

Sasuke smirked. "I know."

This time, Naruto really made sure that he was rough with pulling out the senbon.

Naruto glanced over to Haku, noting that the boy just stood extremely still, if not a little slouched. He imagined that, behind the mask, Haku's mouth was hanging open.

"Time-traveller," Haku said, repeating what was said earlier, before nodding to himself.

"Time-traveller," both boys echoed, and nodded.

There was a moment of silence between the three.

"So," Haku finally spoke, sitting cross-legged in his mirror. "What else do you know?"

"Lot's of things," Naruto replied, before thinking. "For example, you just want to distract, not actually kill us."

Haku hesitated, before slowly nodding. "My job is to distract you," he confirmed. "However, I will kill if need be."

Naruto nodded. "Because Zabuza is your precious person."

"He is."

Sasuke watched the exchange, bored. He wished that they were back to fighting again, not just having a conversation on what was going to happen plus Haku's true motives. Sure, this hurt less, but it was utterly boring.

Suddenly, something grabbed him from behind, and he tensed up.

"Sasuke, Naruto, I'm here to help."

The two mentioned boys turned to look behind them, eyes widening upon noticing Sakura inside the dome with them. Haku stared as well, probably also stunned.

Naruto glanced to Sasuke. "So, does this count as us failing the mission?"

"Not if we keep Tazuna alive," Sakura reassured him.

Sasuke frowned suspiciously. "We can't keep him alive if we're all in here," he said.

Sakura grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Everything is a-okay!" she said. "I have everything planned out."

6

Tazuna gulped in fear, praying to every deity he could think of for safety. He had been horrified when they had turned up to the bridge to see his unconscious workmates. At first he had thought them to have been slaughtered, but he soon noticed that their twitching and groaning meant that they were alive. Afterwards, a mist had taken over the area, making it hard to see, and he found that he could not stop shaking. The older ninja, the Kakashi guy, set two of the young children to guard him while the third took care of a different masked kid and the older ninja took on the dangerous ninja from before.

While being looked after by two children was all well and good (though, playing havoc on his nerves given that he could not see them as anything other then young children), he was still terrified. Then the kids dragged him away from the more dangerous fight, and the boy disappeared. Tazuna was left with just the young girl to defend him, and he began to feel even more vulnerable (though, now he also knew where one of Tsunami's missing kitchen knives had gone).

It did not help that the girl met up with someone, started talking, and then left him with the newcomer as though he was just baggage (which, he thought sadly, he probably was). Normally, he would be thankful that the stranger was much older, but the other's nature only made him feel worse.

"I felt safer with just the brats," he muttered, feeling exhausted.

The other paused in his flailing for just a second, noting the person beside him, before continuing with renewed vigour.

"What's that? Sorry, but Tobi can't hear you over the sound of his own dancing!"

Tazuna sighed again, resigning himself to just watching the orange-masked man. "Yep, much safer. . ."

* * *

The Uzumaki bloodline thing was a joke, so don't worry.


	14. Chapter 14

**IMPORTANT:**I am disappearing for two months, so the next chapter should be uploaded on the **5th January 2013 **(probably the 4th for some of you because of timezones). I will try to update sometime in between now and then, but (if I can't) that is the definite date that a (the) new chapter will be uploaded.

Thank you for reading as far as you have, and, for other southern hemisphere inhabitants, hooray for summer!

* * *

Team Seven glanced among themselves, now wondering what to do next. Haku seemed to have not taken Sakura's interference very well, and thought it to be a threat. He had attacked them, raining down on all of them with his senbon, and Team Seven were back to looking like pin-cushions once more. The only reason that they were not being currently attacked was because Haku seemed to be waiting to see how they would retaliate. The boy seemed nervous, and there was probably a good reason for that.

"So what should we do now?" Sakura asked, squeaking as she pulled one of the needles out of her side. "We're easy targets; it's hard to move around in here."

"And whose fault is that?" Sasuke growled, glaring at her.

Sakura flinched a little, before standing her ground and glaring back.

Naruto sighed. "We could try to continue talking to him."

Sasuke shook his head. "Too boring," he argued. "Besides, some idiot had to ruin our chances there."

Sakura's eyes narrowed further.

"You're lucky I like you, Uchiha," she warned.

Naruto stared at the girl in slight surprise. She would never call Sasuke by his surname and, yet, she just had.

"Oh?" Sasuke replied, sneering. "And what would you do if you didn't like me?"

Sakura suddenly smirked, and Sasuke quickly lost his sneer. "This," she said, and she punched the boy in his stomach.

Naruto's eyes practically bugged out of his head. Was he seeing what he thought he was seeing?

The punch had caught Sasuke a little off guard, and the boy stumbled backwards a step or two. He coughed, before staring up in slight surprise. He also seemed to be surprised by what Sakura had just done to him, and, at first, glanced over her warily. The girl was smirking at him, and she flicked her hair back with a casual wrist flick. Sasuke glared at her.

"Well," he said, glaring as he walked back towards the girl. "You're lucky that I don't completely despise you."

"Really?" Sakura tilted her head, but kept her smirk.

Boys liked confident girls, she would remind herself.

"Yes," Sasuke continued. "Otherwise, I'd have no qualms about doing this!"

He punched Sakura's jaw, and knocked her off balance. The girl gave a shocked gasp, caught herself before hitting the ground, and swung her leg out to connect with Sasuke's shin. Sasuke hopped back a little, favouring his hurt leg, before swinging his knee in to collide with her chest. Sakura coughed and fell over. She spat out some saliva and glared viciously at her offender. She growled and threw herself at him, grabbing him around the middle. She then head-butted his chin twice, before he managed to rip her off him and kick her in the stomach.

Naruto glanced at Haku, and he swore that he saw the boy flinch while watching the poor fight. Sasuke and Sakura just seemed to want to beat the snot out of each other and, to make matters even more confusing, it just seemed so out of character for Sakura. Then again, Naruto had to remind himself that Sakura seemed to be maturing more quickly this time around, so it might just have been right in her character to want to beat down the boy that was always turning down her affections.

Naruto shuddered. If that was so, then he certainly did not want a girlfriend. Bachelorhood all the way, and he would die an old bachelor hermit that appreciated but did not keep women, just like Jiraiya. Yes, he liked that life plan.

Eventually, both Naruto and Haku locked eyes.

Haku slowly pointed at the fight, but did not speak.

"You know that guy that hired you and Zabuza?" Naruto asked, trying to change the subject and trying to get Haku back into peaceful talking once again. "What was his name?"

"Gato?" Haku replied, unsure of what Naruto wanted with the name.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, Gusto. That man doesn't plan on pay you guys, you know?"

Haku tilted his head to the side a little.

"I won't leave you three alone," he insisted. "Master Zabuza wants me here, so I shall do as he wants." He lifted a few more senbon. "So, while your strange friends take care of each other, I'll just have to knock you out."

Naruto took a step backwards, and Haku flew out of the mirror headed straight for him. Before they could make contact, though, there was a shout of "Sonova!", and Haku switched direction to the right to avoid a couple of senbon and a fireball headed his way. Haku melted back into one of the mirrors, and Naruto turned his head to stare at his teammates. Sakura grinned back, panting, and Sasuke smirked, wiping a little blood from his lower lip.

"You didn't think that we would let you do as you please, did you?" Sasuke sneered, and Naruto was not sure if the sneer was aimed at him, Haku, or the both of them.

Sakura giggled. "Our grand plan to catch you off guard succeeded!" she called. "Though, it had been brilliant to work off all our frustrations too."

Sasuke shot Sakura an odd look, mulling over her apparent 'plan', before he gave a curt nod. "Indeed," he said.

"Off guard?" Haku asked, sounding either unconvinced or concerned.

Not concerned for his own safety, but concerned for the team of strange kids.

"I'm calling bullshit," Naruto grumbled, quiet enough to not be heard.

"Yes," Sakura said, huffing with pride. "Once you were convinced that we weren't a problem and removed your attention from us, we attacked."

Naruto coughed and glanced away, while Sasuke found the ground suddenly very interesting.

Haku stared at Naruto, before returning his attention to both Sasuke and Sakura.

Well," Haku said, drawing more senbon. "Let's see if you can 'catch' me 'off guard' again."

"Does he have an infinite supply of those needles, or what?" Sakura grumbled.

Suddenly Haku was on the move again, and Team Seven were being assaulted by senbon once more. There was no use ducking or dodging as Haku was fast enough to hit them wherever he wanted, and they had no say in the matter.

Naruto hissed in pain as he felt the sharp needles pierce his skin, and he could hear Sakura screaming. Sasuke was mostly quiet, but he let out the odd shout or grunt showing that he was not faring any better. When the attack died down, Naruto noticed that the three of them were prickly and bleeding.

"Might as well try this the old way," he mumbled to himself, thinking back to how he called up all the shadow clones last time. He was interrupted when he was promptly lifted up off the ground from under the arms.

"Tobi is here to help!" Naruto's assailant yelled, and Naruto felt his ears ringing afterwards.

"Tobi?!" Sakura stared over to the man, before growing quite pale. "Wait, but who's looking after Tazuna?"

Sasuke and Naruto both tensed and stared at the man.

"Don't worry," Obito assured them, placing Naruto back on the ground. "A good friend of Tobi's is helping us too!"

1

Tazuna stood next to the plant-man beside him, sweating out of fear.

There was a moment of silence between the two, before black Zetsu decided to ruin it.

"**I say we eat him."**

"Urk!" Tazuna jumped.

2

Sakura sighed. "Oh, well, as long as he's safe."

"Very safe!" Obito assured her.

Naruto groaned. The mission was just getting worse and worse. First he glared at Sakura, wondering what on earth had possessed the girl to think that leaving ANYTHING important in Obito's care was okay. He had to remind himself that she did not actually know how the masked man really was like, and that she only knew him as the ready to help, energetic idiot 'Tobi'. He had to continually remind himself, just to hold back from going into a screaming fit at her.

He, then, glared at Obito, narrowing his eyes as the man continued to act like his childish Tobi cover. Naruto wished to the gods and back that Obito would have at least behaved normally around everyone and not just him. 'Tobi' was irritating without a doubt, and Naruto was too weak to properly do anything about it.

Of course, properly taking care of 'Tobi' required Naruto to kill Obito, but Naruto did not mind that. He preferred to have the man dead than to let Kakashi see how his 'best friend' turned into a complete madman.

Naruto could not even call him Obito if there were others around. The fact that the man had introduced himself to everyone as 'Tobi' showed that he really was not that interested in being known by anything else, and Naruto dared not to go against him there. Even if Obito claimed that he was iffy about killing Naruto until they returned to their time, he was sure that the name reveal would make the man reconsider his standing on that point and just destroy everyone.

After all, he had the power.

"Idiot," Naruto muttered, folding his arms. Obito had the power to kill them all very easily, and yet he wanted to leave everything alone until they returned to the time in which killing everything was much harder.

Naruto could not understand the man at all.

"Did you say something, Naruto-boy?" Obito asked him, causing Naruto's eye to twitch.

Naruto shook his head, and he glanced over to Haku. The poor boy was staring at Obito, shaking all over. A bad run in, Naruto supposed. He figured that the unfortunate young 'girl' from Sasuke's recount really had been Haku. His eyes narrowed. What did Obito do to him?

Obito slung his arm over Naruto's shoulder, causing Naruto's glare to intensify. Obito remained completely unaffected, though.

"Shall we work together to defeat this masked evildoer?" he asked, exaggerating his voice.

"Let go," Naruto managed, barely.

Sakura and Sasuke glanced between the two of them, both frowning.

"Somehow, it doesn't feel right to have Naruto glaring like that," Sakura said.

Sasuke gave a nod. "I agree."

"So do I," Obito spoke up. He pulled both of Naruto's cheeks apart. "Smile, damn it!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched.

Haku continued to shake, and he could barely pull out more of his senbon. He recognised the masked man, and to see that he seemed to be in league with the three kids before him really made him nervous. The masked man had seen him while he was out to pick some herbs for Zabuza, and then had charged at him, screaming and flailing his arms in all directions. Haku had screamed and had run the opposite way, but just could not lose the man. He ran, being chased, for almost an hour, and all screams of "what do you want?!" just went completely unanswered.

Of course, Haku was not poor enough to be scared away by a screaming, flailing idiot alone. No, he had been scared away by a screaming, flailing idiot that was possibly powerful enough to level an entire country without having any trouble. He could sense the strength, the terrible, immense strength, and all because the man had wanted him to sense it. Haku could not feel the man's power when they were anywhere near the children, but the moment that they were far enough away he could feel it, and it chilled him right to his core.

There was no killing intent either, which was strange. Just strength, terrible strength.

Haku gulped. If he could just take out the man during this distracted moment, then the children would be easy to knock unconscious. However, as long as the man was conscious, Haku was positive that he, himself, would not stand a chance. Failing Zabuza was something that he never wanted to do, and he prayed that he would not end up doing so today. He was not stupid, he knew that he could never stand up to the masked man, so knocking him out by catching him off guard was the only way to go. He shivered and prayed that his surprise attack would work.

Haku flew out of his mirror, using the absolute fastest of his speeds, towards the masked man. He held his senbon ready, prepared to slam them through the pressure points in the man's neck. He could see them all, they had not noticed him yet, everything was going well. . .

Haku was caught by the collar, and his body jerked backwards. He dropped his needles, and his eyes widened in horror as he stared ahead of him the masked man was no longer standing there. He glanced behind him, and began to shake badly. The masked man was the one that had caught him, and he was just staring at him from behind the orange swirl mask.

Haku was glad that his own mask was in place, because he would not be able to hide the look of sheer terror that he was positive was currently gracing his face. The masked man was not allowing anyone to feel how strong he was, and, yet, he was still absolutely terrifying.

"Lookie what I caught!" Obito called, holding up Haku for Team Seven to see.

"W-w-when the heck did you move?" Sakura asked, absolutely stunned. "You were right next to Naruto just a moment ago."

"So fast," Sasuke said, unable to hide his amazement. His jaw hung slack.

Naruto shuddered. Obito really could just kill them all without any difficulty if he wanted to. They probably would not even know that they were dead by the time he had finished cutting through them all.

Obito bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "Tobi likes to move quickly, sometimes."

Naruto reformed his glare. Obito had not been bluffing back when he had claimed that he could scale the tree over a hundred times before Naruto could even manage to scale it once.

He turned his head away and glanced at his teammates. Sakura remained stunned, but was very gradually forming an amazed smile, and Sasuke was. . .

. . .Well, the sharingan had finally formed.

Obito shook Haku a little, and he brought the boy back down to the ground. "What should we do with him?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Sakura was the first to move, and she began to fish around in Sasuke's weapon pouch. Sasuke glanced down at the girl, watching but unmoving. He just frowned at her.

"I have some garrotte wire, here," Sakura said, now holding Sasuke's ex-garrotte wire out for Obito to take.

Sasuke now frowned at the wire.

"Perfect!" Obito took the wire from the girl. "I will tie him up, yes?"

Without waiting for an answer, Obito set to tying up Haku's wrists, ankles, and arms (for good measure). Once he was done, he plucked Haku's mask off the boy.

"Can I keep this?"

Naruto shook his head. "That belongs to Haku, you can't just nick it."

Sasuke wandered over and just stared at Haku's face. After a while of just staring, he nodded and walked back over to Sakura.

"That's the girl that Tobi chased away before," he told her.

"But that's a boy," Sakura said, frowning.

"That's why I was confused," Sasuke replied.

"I can wear it over the top of my mask," Obito continued, holding the mask up in front of his own.

"It belongs to Haku," Naruto repeated.

"Or I could wear it instead of my mask—"

"I said no!"

Obito looked at Naruto, then at the mask, then back to Naruto again.

"You can wear the mask; we can be mask-buddies."

Naruto yanked the mask away from Obito and knelt down to Haku (who was sitting on the ground). The poor boy just stared away, seemingly unsure if he should be frightened, upset, angry, or all three. Naruto placed the mask in Haku's lap and sighed. 'Tobi' always managed to give him a headache.

"You seem pretty shaken," Naruto said.

No, shit.

Haku stared at Naruto. "That man is your friend?" he asked, sounding worried.

Naruto shook his head. "I'd rather not consider him a friend," he confessed.

Haku pressed his lips into a thin line. "Be careful," he warned. "That man's not normal."

"I will," Naruto said, before standing back up.

He looked around him. Haku's ice mirrors were starting to melt quickly. It was probably time for him to go to Kakashi and try to stop the death of Zabuza. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to watch Obito wave goodbye before leaving. Naruto huffed, good riddance. He glanced over to his teammates, watching them talk over Obito's speed. Sakura was actively showing her enthusiasm, and Sasuke was actively trying his hardest to hide his.

Naruto turned and began to walk away. He decided that his teammates could watch Tazuna and Haku, while he had to go and save Zabuza. Saving Haku and Zabuza was what he desperately wanted to do. Saving Mizuki had failed, but Naruto knew that he could not just give up yet. With Haku and Zabuza saved, then he could move on to saving others. He would turn the world to his happy ending, and no one would have a say in the matter at all.

A grin spread across his face as he just thought of a world that went. . . right. Team Seven still being together years after, the old hokage still alive and kicking (though probably retired), Akatsuki foiled, and Obito dead (or 'fixed', he supposed). Just a world where everything would go the way that he wanted it to go. If the world went his way, everything would be fine, everything would be wonderful. It was decided; the world HAD to go the way he wanted it to go. No one else could have any say in the matter, just him and only him.

The smile slipped from his face and he paused mid-step. What, what was he thinking? Yes, he had to get his happy end, but was his idea right?

Yes, of course it was.

He was not trying to destroy the world; he was trying to fix it.

That made it okay in his head.

"It's not cool when you just decide to wander off on us," Sakura said, catching up to Naruto.

The blond jumped and stared at her.

"Sakura," he started. "Sakura, I thought that you and Sasuke could mind Tazuna and Haku. . ."

Sakura grinned. "Sasuke's doing that at the moment," she said. "He sent me after you."

"He, he did?" Naruto asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

Sakura went thoughtful. "Well, he just told me to leave him alone, so I guess that was sort of like telling me to follow you."

Naruto grinned, before breaking out into laughter. Sakura joined him in laughing, and they walked together. By the time that they reached Kakashi and Zabuza, they were still giggling. When they saw that Zabuza was being held in place by a pack of dog summons, and that both Kakashi and Zabuza were staring at them as though they had grown second heads, the two of them burst into even more laughter.

Kakashi and Zabuza shared a glance with each other, the one-eyed jounin recovering much faster from the shock.

"You two were meant to mind the bridge builder," Kakashi said, growing angry at his students.

"He's safe and is with Sasuke," Naruto explained, while Sakura still giggled a little. "Oh, and we finished with Haku too, so we came here to help you."

Kakashi gave them an incredulous stare.

Zabuza's mouth was slightly agape.

"You're. . . you're joking," Kakashi managed.

Sakura shook her head. "We're telling the truth, Master Kakashi."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Also, please don't kill Zabuza, Master Kakashi."

Kakashi's eyes widened a little. "Why not?"

"The guy that hired them, Gumbo, never plans to pay them," he explained. "In fact, he wants to have them killed, and that's so not cool."

Kakashi opened his mouth to question the boy on his knowledge (and to correct the boy on the name), but he was cut off by Zabuza's chuckling.

"Future-brat's probably right," he said. "I never liked the little mole, anyway."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Zabuza is a wanted man," he explained. "He's a dangerous criminal, and, to avoid a more rocky relationship with Mist, we should kill him."

Naruto also narrowed his eyes, and he lost his happy grin. Master Kakashi would not really stand in the way of his happy end, would he?

"We're meant to be on a safe mission, just a C-rank, nice and happy for a group of genin, right?" he began. "Young genin on their first C-rank probably should not have to deal with death, right?"

"Naruto. . ." Kakashi said in a warning tone.

"How about we take him hostage?" Naruto continued. "Please, Master Kakashi?"

Kakashi stared at Naruto, glanced over to Zabuza, and then he shook his head.

"I'm going to regret this," he muttered. "We'll take them hostage for the meantime, and, as soon as we return to Konoha, I'm putting in a word to the Hokage over where they were last seen. Keep in mind that the only reason that I'm not going to kill them is because I have a team of brats to look after, okay?"

Naruto brightened, and a smile spread across his face. "Thank you, Master Kakashi."

Kakashi huffed. "Don't," he growled.

He wandered over to Zabuza, yanked his head up, forced him to stare eye to eye with his sharingan, and he stuck the man under a sleeping genjutsu. All but one of the summons disappeared, and it was one of the largest that stayed behind to keep and eye on the man. As soon as that was done, Sakura took it upon herself to dig out her new (Sasuke's old) garrotte wire to start binding the man's wrists and ankles.

Kakashi just shook his head again.

"Now we've just got to wait until Grotto turns up," Naruto said, with a wide grin that looked as though it could split his face.

"It's 'Gato', Naruto," Kakashi corrected him, before sighing.

Of course, it did not take long until Gato and his thugs did turn up. They made a loud appearance, and Gato walked ahead of them. There had to be around two-hundred thugs ahead of them, and the best part was that regular thugs were just weak enough for genin like Naruto and Sakura to play around with. Upon seeing the unconscious Zabuza on the ground (and thinking him to be dead) Gato scoffed.

"The baby demon went out and got himself killed," he said. "Such an incompetent baby demon that couldn't even take out a bridge builder." He stared at Kakashi. "So, you're the one that defeated him? Would you like a job? I'll pay you handsomely if you can take out a certain bridge builder for me—"

Gato was cut off by the screams of his men. Naruto and Sakura had not even waited before diving in for some fun. Naruto summoned up a number of clones and went around knocking people out with brute force, but it was not because of him that the men were screaming. The cause of the screaming was Sakura. The little sadist-in-the-making had decided to cast her new favourite genjutsu onto a section of the crowd.

Though her range was not very far, only able to affect two to three people at the most, the thugs were weak enough to fall to it. Once her genjutsu had finished on one set, she cast it on a different group, and that was how she continued. She had Naruto work together with her, and his clones attacked the ones that she had finished with. One or two of the genjutsu-caught men smiled, a larger number were confused, and an even larger number were disgusted, swearing that they would never be able to look at doors the same way again. There were a small few who screamed, and they were Sakura's favourites.

3

Sasuke had his weapons drawn out and at the ready, while he stared down at the large group of thugs that stood before him. A short distance behind Sasuke stood Tazuna and sat Haku, but, other than them, he was alone. He swore under his breath as he surveyed the crowd with his sharingan eyes. Nearly one-hundred and seventy stood before him and, although they were most likely untrained thugs and therefore technically weaker than a genin, Sasuke knew that he would be having difficulty without any backup. If he was completely by himself, he could probably handle them all, but he had to also look after Tazuna and a bound Haku.

It was not a good situation to be in.

The thugs sneered and chortled, talking amongst themselves, and some even carrying on about how lucky they were to be on the side that contained a kid, a tied kid, and their target. They carried various weapons (most of them wrongly, Sasuke irritatingly noticed), and they carried themselves with a threatening air.

Sasuke moved into a defensive position, so different from the offensive position that he preferred, but he had to do it. He had to defend the bridge builder, and he cursed both Naruto and Sakura for walking off on him.

One of the thugs, the supposed leader, took a step forward.

"Just a brat; this is going to be easy."

He halted in taking another step forward, though, as an orange-masked man materialised beside Sasuke.

Sasuke almost jumped, having not expected the man to return.

"Ah! Sasuke-boy, you'll never guess what!"

"Tobi. . ."

"I've perfected my dancing!" Obito continued, having ignored Sasuke's warning. He held up an old and battered tape player. "And look! I even remembered to bring the music this time!"

"Tobi, now's not the—"

Obito promptly placed the tape player on the ground beside him and pressed the 'play' button.

4

Naruto and Sakura continued to charge through the crowd, Sakura now was also on the offensive. They charged through, having already taken care of at least sixty percent of the thugs, now everyone had more room to move. The few thugs with weaponry managed to dispel a few of Naruto's clones, and they were even brave enough to attack the real deal (that was Sakura, as they were unable to tell which Naruto was the real one).

Sakura had a number of scrapes and cuts on her body, but nothing that was too serious. She had a kunai out in front of her just for blocking the weapons. She was nice enough to follow Naruto's lead, though, and just knock the men unconscious instead of cutting them.

"Master Kakashi, grab Bungo!" several Naruto called out, not even stopping from their attack on the men.

Kakashi, who had been watching the battle and had just learned where his favourite kunai had disappeared to (as it had been missing since the day he set the brats with tree climbing exercises), did not even bother to correct Naruto on Gato's name. Instead, the man shrugged and did what was asked of him, dragging the little mole-man over to stand beside him.

Gato, though, just stared at the children in partial horror.

"They're monsters," he said.

"No," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "They're my cute little students."

Gato only paled further.

Sakura ducked down to avoid a blade and she swung her leg out to knock her offender over. Once he was down, she smacked the back of his head and knocked him unconscious. She, then, turned and held her (new) kunai up to block a swing from another thug's cleaver. She pulled her free arm back and punched him in the gut. The man dropped his cleaver and gasped while holding his stomach. Sakura smacked him on the back of the head, as well, before pausing and frowning.

"Can anyone else hear music?" she asked.

Without receiving any responses, she continued her attack. In no time at all, both her and Naruto had managed to knock out the entire crowd.

They met with their teacher and all decided to check on Sasuke and Tazuna. Naruto and Sakura kept a close eye on Gato (who they dragged along), and Kakashi carried the sleeping Zabuza over his shoulder. They made it over to Sasuke just in time to see the most unusual sight.

They saw Haku (still tied), Tazuna, and Sasuke all staring ahead in a stunned silence. In front of them, there was Obito dancing around in a small and clear circle surrounded by unconscious thugs. Not a single thug was awake. Soon, the music came to its end, and Obito sprung into a victory pose.

Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, and Gato were all just staring in a confused silence.

"Wha. . . What happened here?" Sakura finally asked, staring around at the strange sight before her.

Sasuke did not even glance in her direction; his eyes remained on the scene in front of him.

"He. . . he took them all out by. . . by dancing. . ." he explained.

Obito gave a few deep bows, before collecting his tape-player and leaving in a flash.

Sakura stood beside Sasuke and stared at his face. "Sasuke, your sharingan is still out."

"I. . . I know," he replied.

5

When Zabuza came to, the situation was fully explained to him. Both he and Haku were held captive until the bridge (this time around, named the "Dancing Bridge") was completed, and were released just outside of Wave. Haku gave team Seven a nervous nod before running away after his master. Zabuza had promised Kakashi that they would one day finish their fight to the death, but had also seemed slightly grateful. The students had been fully capable to have killed Haku, and they had chosen not to do so. That warranted some kind of thanks in his books.

Naruto had been sad to see them go, but he also felt immensely pleased that two lives had been saved, two fates had been changed.

He was one step closer to his goal of his happy end.

Of course, he hated the thought that he could actually be indebted to Obito for helping.

6

Elsewhere, a mass of pulsing chakra and flesh moved. It opened one of its many eyes (for it had as many eyes as it had teeth, and its eyes covered its body wherever it had slick red flesh) and it chattered to itself.

It rolled its oversized, round head, and it shifted its pulsing, slick and slimy jellybean-shaped body. Its arms and legs stuck close to its body, too small and weak to do anything and be anything other than decorative.

It was developing, but it was developing slowly. Too slowly, and it knew that it was still too weak.

It needed more strength, more influence to change the world around it.

It would change the world, it would win, it would wake.

From its small pocket in reality, the dark, warm and damp home that it had created for itself, it called out for sustenance. More sustenance meant more strength, more strength meant more development, and more development meant more influence.

It opened a rift in its space, allowing the world in existence to meet its world of dull warmth. From there it sang its siren song to the two wanderers, a young boy and his Master, and it called them to it. The eyes blinked and rolled and tittered when it confirmed the identities of the two it had called. A child with an extraordinary power, and a man with an exceptional talent for killing in silence.

It called them into it, consuming them, and then it rumbled in pleasure.

* * *

Although I never wrote it in, I imagine the music to be "Let's Groove" by "Earth, Wind and Fire".


End file.
